Diabetes-Team

Adult Diabetes

Diabetes isn’t something that anyone wants to hear that they have. Having diabetes means that you have to change everything about your lifestyle – what you eat, how you exercise, even how you cook and shop at the grocery store. It also brings with it the danger of some medical issues developing and, of course, the realization that you will probably have to start giving yourself daily injections to manage your insulin level.

Adults who have diabetes have either grown up with it or it was something that developed when they were an adult – this is known as adult-onset diabetes, or diabetes type 2. Diabetes type 2 is the most common type of diabetes; this is the kind that affects most people who are suffering from diabetes. It’s typically diagnosed after someone goes to a doctor and gets tested.

Diabetes is what occurs when the body develops what’s known as insulin resistance. In other words, the cells in the body react wrongly when insulin is present. The body needs insulin because insulin is what allows cells in the fat tissue, muscle and liver to take and store glucose. If the body does not store up glucose, the body starts using fat as an alternate energy source, which causes major issues in the body. These issues result in the symptoms associated with adult diabetes and can, in some cases, lead to coma and death.

Knowing The Symptoms

The symptoms of adult diabetes – as in, the things that make someone realize that something is wrong with them and that they need to see a doctor – can be a little tricky to pin down because many adults attribute them to just having a bad day. Things like an increased in the production or urine, increase thirst and fluid intake and fatigue or unexplained weight loss are often blamed on things like colds or the flu. It isn’t until some of the more serious symptoms of adult diabetes start to make themselves known that people realize something might be wrong. These symptoms include itching of the external genitalia and blurred vision, amongst others. Complications from adult diabetes include renal failure, erectile dysfunction, blindness, arterial disease and even slow healing wounds. In order to diagnose diabetes, there are a few different blood tests that can be done.

Adult diabetes has many different causes. Many doctors believe that genetics plays a role in the development of diabetes – those with relatives who have diabetes are more likely to develop it. Medications can also trigger diabetes, specifically beta-blockers and things like corticosteroids, both of which block insulin secretion. And one of the biggest contributing factors is weight. Around 55% of those who have type 2 diabetes are obese. Obesity causes a change in metabolism that affects the insulin level in the body, which causes type 2 diabetes. It also leads to the development of insulin resistance.

Managing adult diabetes is important and it’s very possible with today’s modern medicine. In many cases, the only thing that needs to be done to properly manage diabetes is to change one’s diet appropriately and start exercising. This goes hand-in-hand with weight loss, since many patients with type 2 diabetes are obese. Changing one’s diet and losing weight often solves the insulin problem and the person with diabetes doesn’t just manage it, they cure it – the disease will vanish, in other words. In some cases, the amount of weight someone needs to lose is below five pounds, although most people need to lose a bit more weight before the adult diabetes resolves itself. There are also some medications that can be taken to help manage diabetes.

With type 2 diabetes, very few patients need to undergo the daily injections that people suffering from type 1 diabetes use. This is because people who have type 1 diabetes have cells that are no longer capable of producing insulin at all – so they need to inject it into their bodies. With type 2 diabetes, the body is producing the insulin it needs; it just isn’t responding correctly to that insulin. Learning everything you can about adult diabetes is the best way to go about managing it.

Always consult your doctor before using this information.

This Article is nutritional in nature and is not to be construed as medical advice.