The number of people in their twenties and thirties struggling with type II diabetes, which has rarely occurred in people under 40, is increasing. Treatment started too late risks blindness, kidney damage, limb amputation, heart attack, stroke and, consequently, premature death. Meanwhile, the disease may be asymptomatic for many years.
The sweet name of the disease does not mean that it is caused by excessive sugar consumption. It concerns the basic symptom, which is too high blood sugar. This is mainly due to the lack or malfunction of the hormone – insulin, which is responsible for the conversion of consumed glucose into the energy needed for the work of every cell in our body. If this mechanism is not working properly, blood sugar levels will rise.
Diabetes epidemic
National consultant in the field of diabetology prof. Krzysztof Strojek emphasizes that diabetes is not a problem of high blood glucose, but its consequences. For this reason, people with diabetes are at risk of disability or premature death. Meanwhile, many of them could live if they were properly treated. However, half of the patients do not even know that they are ill because initially they do not feel any discomfort and do not seek help from a doctor. – The patient begins to feel symptoms only when the blood sugar level exceeds 200. Meanwhile, the norms are 90-110 – explains prof. Outfit. Therefore, everyone should have their blood sugar tested every three years. If, on the other hand, he is obese, has high blood pressure, too high cholesterol or has diabetes in his family – once a year. – The most important thing is that the patient should start the therapy as early as possible. In modern medicine, treatment does not begin when the disease is already affecting the patient, but when the test results are abnormal, explains the national diabetes consultant.
Doctors warn that an epidemic of diabetes awaits us and that it will be affected by it younger and younger. Prof. Krzysztof Strojek says that overweight, lack of physical activity and factors related to heredity are responsible for the increase in diabetes. – If one of the parents has diabetes, the child will develop diabetes earlier than the mother or father. And it will be like that in every next generation – he explains. As diabetes becomes more common among young people, the complications associated with it – problems with the circulatory system such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, blindness, and kidney problems – also appear at an earlier age.
Treatment of diabetes mellitus
The American Diabetes Association has changed the approach to treating diabetes. Until now, people with slightly elevated blood sugar were advised to change their diet and follow-up. Currently, such a flexible approach is moving away. Today it is known that even a slightly elevated sugar in a previously healthy patient must be brought into line with the applicable standards.
– It is very important to treat the disease intensively already at the diagnosis, because the treatment of diabetes, including initial diabetes, determines whether the patient will have a heart attack and die after 15 years – says Prof. Outfit. In addition, the risk of other diabetic complications is also reduced, the most dangerous of which are blindness, kidney damage, and thus the need for dialysis treatment or kidney transplantation, and foot ulcers that can lead to necrosis and amputation. Treating diabetes is primarily based on maintaining an adequate level of sugar in the blood. The sick may be given pills. If this does not help, the diabetic is given insulin injections. – Medicines at our disposal – if taken regularly, they allow to balance the sugar level in patients to normal values. Diabetes complications, on the other hand, cannot be cured – emphasizes prof. Outfit.
Bariatric surgery
In obese people with a BMI over 35, it is recommended to perform bariatric surgeries. – In the case of type 90 diabetes, if the operation is performed one or two years after diagnosis, the patient has a 80% chance of curing it – says bariatric surgeon Prof. Mariusz Wyleżoł. One method is to put on an adjustable band that divides the stomach into two parts, the top of which has a capacity of about two tablespoons, so that the patient feels full almost immediately after a meal. In some cases, the surgeon may remove about XNUMX% of the stomach. The remaining fragment then has the capacity of a glass. There are also more complicated operations that eliminate some part of the digestive tract from the digestive process.
A few years ago, new incretin drugs stimulating insulin production appeared on the market. They mimic the action of hormones that stimulate the body to release insulin. These drugs do not cause the blood sugar level to fall too low, which can happen with insulin. They only work when blood glucose levels are too high. Professor Strojek explains that these are drugs intended for those patients in whom current therapies do not bring the desired results. Unfortunately, incretin drugs are not reimbursed in Poland. The cost of monthly therapy varies between PLN 300 and PLN 500.
Also read: How to live with diabetes?