Useful Gyan

The World Health Organization states that diabetes led to 1.5 million deaths in 2019. Considering the magnanimity of the issue we require to further probe into its cause and discuss some preventive measures.

Diabetes is a chronic health condition,which impacts the way your body turns food into energy. The food that you consume breaks down into sugar or glucose and gets released into your bloodstream. The pancreas release insulin when the blood sugar levels increase. The insulin lets the blood sugar into your body’s cells to be used as energy.

What happens when you have diabetes?

When you have diabetes, there are two conditions that can occur:
Your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or is unable to utilize insulin it produces as well as it should. When your body is not producing required level of insulin or cells don’t respond to insulin, more than required amount of blood sugar stays in your blood.

Over a period of time this causes severe health problems like:

• Heart disease
• Vision loss
• Kidney disease

Well, it’s a challenging health condition since there isn’t a cure for diabetes as yet. But you can surely manage it.

Different types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes:
This is an autoimmune disease. The immune system adversely impacts the pancreas and destroys its cells, where insulin is produced. The causes of this phenomenon are unclear.

Type 2 diabetes:
It occurs when your body resists insulin and sugar starts to build up in your body.

Prediabetes:
When blood sugar becomes higher than normal level, but it isn’t as high to be diagnosed at type 2 diabetes.

Gestational diabetes:
Is when blood sugar becomes high during pregnancy. Insulin begins to block hormones causing gestational diabetes.

Causes of diabetes:

Causes associated with different types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes:
The causes of type 1 diabetes aren’t known yet. The immune system attacks and destroys insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Genes might play a major role in this case. In some cases, it might happen that the virus triggers the immune system attack.

Type 2 diabetes:
The cause of this type of diabetes is a combination of genetics and lifestyle factors. Being obese can act as a risk factor. Belly fat makes your cells resistant to the effects of insulin on blood sugar.
This condition runs in families. Type 2 diabetes has genetic causes.

Gestational diabetes
It is the result of hormonal changes happening during pregnancy. Placenta produces hormones that adversely impacts a pregnant woman’s cell. They make the cells less sensitive to the effects of insulin. This leads to an increase in blood sugar levels during pregnancy.
Women who gain weight during pregnancy or are already overweight are more susceptible to diabetes.

Prevention

It is tough to prevent type 1 diabetes but healthy lifestyle can aid in treating prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.

Eat healthy foods:
Choose to eat low fat and low calories foods. Prefer having fibrous foods. Eat fruits, whole grains and vegetables.

Engage in physical activities:
Always engage in 30 to 45 minutes brisk walking, exercising, aerobic activity on daily basis.

Lose weight:
If you are overweight you become more susceptible to diabetes. So, keep a watch on your weight. During pregnancy its not advisable to lose weight. Consult your doctor about how much weight gain is healthy during pregnancy.
So, all in all diabetes can be managed by making conscious lifestyle choices and choosing a healthy diet plan.