As the disease of diabetes affects an exorbitant number of people-over twenty-four million-and the pool of people in a pre-diabetic state continues to grow, it is important to understand the diabetes disease and its implications. Diabetes compromises an individual’s overall health,as it is a systemic disease that can impair function in any organ, tissue, and cell in the body due to elevated blood glucose levels. People can have either type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetics do not produce insulin, while type 2 diabetics are resistant to insulin.
Due to lack of insulin absorption, diabetics may experience an increased need to drink, eat, and urinate as the body is deprived of essential nutrients. In addition, the kidneys try to flush out the overabundance of glucose, which becomes toxic in the blood and results in dehydration. Other diabetes disease symptoms may present as blurred vision, recurring infections, or mood instability.
Diabetes Heart Disease
Diabetes heart disease is not only common in diabetics, but it occurs twice as often as non-diabetics and happens at a much younger age.The two major conditions of diabetes cardiovascular diseaseinclude Coronary Artery Disease and Congestive Heart Failure. Coronary Artery Disease is the process of fatty deposits called plaque that constricts the arteries in the heart. When a plaque bursts, the person has a heart attack, or a myocardial infarction.
Coronary Artery Disease can also lead to the second condition, Congestive Heart Failure, which happens when the heat is unable to pump blood effectively. A person may experience shortness of breath and edema (swelling) in the leg as a symptom. People who suffer chronic heart conditions are susceptible to other conditions and symptoms, such as diabetes metabolic disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides.
Diabetes Kidney Disease
In the United States diabetes kidney disease accounts for nearly 180,000 incidences of kidney disease according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Every year, 44,000 of these people will present with kidney failure. Kidney, or renal disease diabetes, does not start with severe problems. Initially, the kidneys may work better than kidneys in a non-diabetics body, due to the need for filtration of excess glucose.
After about ten years living with diabetes, a person may have protein in the urine, which is referred to as microalbuminuria. This leaking of urine is due to the damage of toxic glucose in the blood vessels, but at this stage, the kidneys are still able to filter properly.It is not until the next stage of kidney disease, proteinuria that additional protein invades the urine and the kidneys begin to lose filter capability. The body will retain waste material and the blood pressure will rise.
A person can remain in this stage of kidney disease diabetesfor approximately five to ten years before kidney failure sets in. At that time, patients may opt for dialysis where an artificial machine cleanses the blood or they can wait for a kidney transplant.
