Exploring Diabetes as a Chronic Disease - Essay Sample

Introduction

A chronic condition refers to a human health situation or disease that shows persistence or long-lasting effects. Arthritis, asthma, cancer, diabetes are some of the renowned chronic diseases. Chronic diseases come with time and gender like it may come with age. They affect the social life of victims and the entire family since they have financial implications. Most of these disease result in the death of a large number of people across the world. The paper seeks to explore diabetes as a chronic disease while discussing causes, symptoms, treatment, its origin, and effects in the human body.

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Diabetes is a chronic disease whereby your blood glucose or rather blood sugar levels are extremely high. Research shows that glucose is obtained from the foods we eat every day. Glucose is converted by insulin hormone to get into blood cells for energy production. There are numerous such as types of diabetes that is type 1 and 2, prediabetes and gestational diabetes. Among the four types of diabetes, only type 1 and 2 are chronic (Kivela et al., 2014). For type, the body does not make the insulin hormone, which breaks down sugar in the blood to energy, and type 2, the body makes insulin, but it does not function well or as expected. Common diabetes found in the world is type 2 diabetes. When the insulin is not functioning well, the glucose tends to stay in the blood hence the instances of high sugar levels. Arguably, type 1 diabetes develops at any ages, but it is believed to be suffered by people at their childhood and adolescents while type 2 can also develop at any age, people of more than forty years are commonly affected. Prediabetes and gestational diabetes are reversible in that the gestational one happens during pregnancy and individual suffering from it returns to normalcy immediately after birth. Any type of diabetes can lead to too much sugar in the blood which further throws the human body into severe health problems.

Causes

The causes of diabetes depend on individual genes composition, history of the family, environmental and health factors, and ethnicity. Ideally, there no typical cause of the two types of diabetes. For example, the causes of type one diabetes depend on the causes of gestational diabetes. On the other hand, the causes of type 2 diabetes are different from what causes type 1. Type 1 diabetes is caused when the immune system of the body starts destroying the pancreas cells that are responsible for the production of insulin hormone (Casanova et al., 2014). The situation renders the body to have little insulin for the proper functioning hence causing diabetes. The situation where the body attacks itself by the immune system destroying pancreas cell that manufacture insulin is known as an autoimmune reaction. There is no particular cause of diabetes, but a bacterial and viral infection might trigger it, chemical toxins found in food eaten daily, an unidentified component that causes an autoimmune reaction in the body that destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Type 1 diabetes can also be caused by genetic composition.

Types 2 diabetes is normally multifactorial which means that more than one cause of diabetes is involved. The most known factor of cause of type 2 diabetes is the history of families. People from the same family might suffer from diabetes because they originate from a single ancestor. For instance, if ancestors of a certain family died of diabetes, it is believed that there are high chances that the family members from that lineage might suffer from chronic disease. The chances of suffering from type 2 diabetes are increased by numerous risk factors which include obesity, unbalanced diet, increasing age and living a sedentary lifestyle.

Symptoms

The symptoms depend on the blood sugar levels of an individual. For example, people who have type 2 diabetes may not demonstrate initial symptoms, but in type 1, they tend to be quickly manifested and more serious. The symptoms for type 1 and two diabetes are increased thirst, extreme hunger, irritability, slow healing of sores, blurred vision, frequent infections like vaginal, skin and gum infections, fatigue, severe weight loss, frequent passing of urine and presence of ketones in the urine.

Treatment

Exercise and Diet Tips

If an individual is diagnosed with any type of diabetes, he or she is supposed to undergo medication to return the blood sugar levels to normalcy. For instance, if a person is found to be suffering from type 2 diabetes, doctors will suggest changes in lifestyle to ensure a loss of weight and overall health. He or she may refer a diabetic patient to a nutritionist for advice on what should eat or not to. The diabetic person can manage his or her condition by using a balanced diet that would serve as a treatment to his or her chronic disease. A person suffering from diabetes should eat a diet with high fresh, nutritious foods with low fat. He or she should avoid sugary foods that offer empty calories with insignificant nutritional advantages. He or she should not drink excessive quantities of alcohol, engage in daily exercise for at least five days weekly. Individuals should embrace steps to reduce their body mass index (BMI) which assists people suffering from type 2 diabetes to manage his or her diabetic condition without necessarily using medicine (Yale et al., 2013). The slow but steady loss of weight is important because it is beneficial for diabetic individuals.

Using insulin

Use of insulin is recommended for people suffering from both type 1 and two diabetes. The insulin helps in keeping blood sugar levels from rising too high. There are various types of insulin which are injected to people suffering from diabetes. These types are regular, rapid, long-acting and intermediate insulin and they are administered depending on the level of the blood sugar. For example, long-acting insulin is administered to ensure consistent low blood sugar level. Other people may use short-acting or opt to inject a combination of the types of insulin to maintain their diabetic conditions. After injection, the level of blood sugar can be determined by use of a fingerstick. The amount of insulin to be injected to a type 1 diabetic patient is determined after the reading from the glucometer is taken since it measures the level of blood sugar thus analyzing the required insulin. One should not assume the blood sugar level using the physical signs since it is very dangerous and might lead to death. The types of insulin should be carefully measured to ensure the blood sugar level is balanced.

Metformin

Mostly, the metformin drug is prescribed to type 2 diabetes by doctors. The drug exists in the form of a pill and a liquid, and it results in lowering blood sugar levels because it makes insulin to be more effective. The pill helps individuals suffering from diabetes to lose weight since healthy weight reduces the effect of diabetes conditions. There are healthy risks associated with diabetes, and therefore doctors do recommend various drugs to suppress their effects.

Origin

The ideal name of diabetes is diabetes mellitus, and it comes from a Greek word meaning, "pass through or siphon." The name diabetes was first used in Apollonius of Memphis during 250 BC (Casanova et al., 2014). The first medical text of diabetes happened during 1425. In 1675, Thomas Willis added the word mellitus since people suffering from diabetes had sweet-tasting urine. Dobson realized that diabetes was fatal in some individuals while in others it demonstrated chronic conditions. It is at this point that he differentiated type 1 and two diabetes.

Effects on the Human Body

Diabetes results in high blood pressure to an individual since it is associated with high cholesterol content which increases the rate of heart attack (Colberg et al., 2016). It may cause stroke due to an increase in cholesterol in the heart. It also affects the eyes of the victim. For example, there is diabetic retinopathy which may result in total blindness. It hurts the kidneys which complicate the work of the kidney. The kidney might show diabetic nephropathy which affects the kidney nephron thus jeopardizing absorption and reabsorption. Diabetes also reduces the response rate of the human body because it affects the nerves which are involved in most of the body functions ranging from reproduction to movement and digestion. Diabetes makes the body to lack energy and fatigue because insulin is used to convert glucose into energy. A person might also suffer stroke disease.

Conclusion

In conclusion, diabetes is a chronic disease, which should be declared as an international disaster. It has resulted in a large number of deaths across the world. Invention on the drugs and measures to eradicate the disease is desperate need. Meanwhile, the type of 1and two diabetes should be managed to reduce diabetes-related deaths. Proper mitigation measures should be put in place to reduce the number of infections across the globe.

References

Casanova, L., Hughes, F. J., & Preshaw, P. M. (2014). Diabetes and periodontal disease: a two-way relationship. British dental journal, 217(8), 433.

Colberg, S. R., Sigal, R. J., Yardley, J. E., Riddell, M. C., Dunstan, D. W., Dempsey, P. C., ... & Tate, D. F. (2016). Physical activity/exercise and diabetes: a position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care, 39(11), 2065-2079.

Kivela, K., Elo, S., Kyngas, H., & Kaariainen, M. (2014). The effects of health coaching on adult patients with chronic diseases: a systematic review. Patient education and counseling, 97(2), 147-157.

Yale, J. F., Bakris, G., Cariou, B., Yue, D., DavidNeto, E., Xi, L., ... & Meininger, G. (2013). Efficacy and safety of canagliflozin in subjects with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 15(5), 463-473.