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Diabetes - An Overview*

'Diabetes Mellitus' or Diabetes, the more commonly as it is known as is a disorder to which an aged human body is usually susceptible to. So how is this caused? Diabetes is basically a deficiency, more strictly speaking, a relative deficiency which causes the disorder. How?

Basics: Why do we need food? to satisfy our taste? of course not.
The food we eat supplies our body with requisite energy so that all those billions of cells which make up the body can carry out their normal functions to keep us healthy and alive.

Now, how does our body extract energy from the food we eat?
The food we eat contains Carbohydrates. This is broken down into Glucose by the enzymes in our digestive track. Once this is done, our body will then extract energy from the glucose.

NOTE: When a patient becomes weak and lacks minimum energy required for the normal functioning of the body due to some ailment or disease like amoebiosis or normal dehydration, the first job a physician usually does is to give a glucose intake to the patient so that his body gets a direct supply of energy. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, the glucose intake can be either oral or intravenous.

The glucose extracted from the food in the digestive system then enters into the blood stream. Once the blood stream gets loaded with glucose above normal levels, Pancreas gland releases an enzyme called Insulin which helps to move glucose into the body cells so that they can utilise the energy content present in the glucose.

Every time the glucose level of the blood stream increases above normal levels, pancreas gland responds by releasing the right amount of insulin. The pancreas continues to do this every time glucose level increases in the blood, no matter when or in what amount a person consumes food.

But in some aged people the response level of the pancreas to the glucose level of the blood stream slowly decreases. In such cases, it releases less insulin (or no insulin at all) than actually required to utilise the glucose in the blood. This causes the glucose level in the blood stream to slowly increase, and at the same time the body cells will face an energy deficiency as the glucose is not used to extract energy to satisfy the body needs. The person becomes weak even though he takes in sufficient food and at the same time the glucose level in the blood increases so much that it also comes out through the urine of the person. 

This situation where the insulin produced by the pancreas is insufficient to utilise the glucose is called Diabetes Mellitus or Diabetes in short. The insulin response to the glucose challenge fails.

This could be overcome by artificial intake of the required amount of insulin in the form of tablets or as injection as suggested by the physician.

In the initial stages where pancreas has just started to report fatigue by releasing slightly inadequate amount of insulin, workload on the pancreas could be reduced by distributing food intake over a period of the day and thereby allowing pancreas to recharge itself.

In some people the inefficiency of the pancreas may well go unnoticed if the glucose content in their food is still manageable by the insulin released  by the pancreas even though the capacity of the pancreas to release insulin has decreased! In such cases, the pancreatic weakness and hence the diabetes can go unnoticed for ever unless and until they one day take in food with glucose content heavier than what their pancreas can manage. 

Diabetes is basically of 2 types, i.e Type I and Type II.
In type I diabetes, the pancreas of the affected individual doesn't produce any insulin at all.
In type II which is less serious than type I, the pancreas of the affected person produces inadequate amount of insulin, i.e less insulin than required by the body.

Diabetics will have to take care while taking in insulin artificially, as either an overdose or an under dose of insulin can lead to severe problems.

If the insulin intake by a diabetic patient is not enough or if he eats food with excess glucose, then hyperglycemia (High blood sugar) occurs. 
High blood sugar can cause damage to the blood vessels and to heart, retina in the eyes, to kidneys etc. 

On the other hand, excess intake of insulin (or very little glucose in the food or no glucose in the food) will result in Hypoglycemia (Low blood sugar). In this case depending on severity of the excess intake, the patient might well undergo severe injuries, unconsciousness, brain damage and even death!

-by Gurudev
gurudevp@vsnl.net
MADE IN INDIA
On 8 November 2002

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