LIVING WITH DIABETES: DEFINITIONS AND TYPES OF THE DISEASE
Diabetes has been around for a long time. The ancient Egyptians recognized the disease, and so did the Romans, who even developed some crude treatments for it. In ancient India, “physicians” recommended exercise as a treatment for the condition we know as diabetes. Amazingly, in modern time we strongly recommend that same exercise programme.
The name of the disease comes from the Greek word “diabetes”, which means to siphon or flow through, and the Latin word “mellitus”, which means honey or sweet.
In Europe during mediaeval times, physicians diagnosed diabetes by tasting the urine of the afflicted patient. If the urine was sweet, the physicians confirmed the diagnosis. Unfortunately, these physicians could not effectively treat the disease.
Definitions
Diabetes mellitus refers to the condition that results in an above-normal level of glucose in the blood, which sometimes spills over through the kidneys into the urine.
There are two major types of diabetes mellitus:
• Type I diabetes, in which the person does not produce any insulin and thus is dependent on injections of insulin to sustain life and to regulate blood glucose levels.
Type I diabetes usually occurs in children and adolescents but has been known to occur in adults. About ten per cent of all persons with diabetes have Type I. The onset of Type I diabetes is rapid, has characteristic symptoms, and often is dramatic.
• Type II diabetes, in which the person may not produce enough insulin or may be resistant to the action of the insulin produced. This person may be able to regulate blood glucose levels by diet and exercise alone; by diet, exercise and an oral anti-diabetes drug; or by diet, exercise and insulin injections.
Type II diabetes usually occurs in adults over the age of forty, those who have a family history of diabetes, those who are overweight or obese, and women who have given birth to babies weighing over four kilograms. It is possible that a woman who gives birth to a big baby had diabetes during her pregnancy (called gestational diabetes), which may not have been diagnosed.
About ninety per cent of all persons with diabetes have Type II. About eighty-five per cent of people with Type II are overweight or obese.
The onset of Type II diabetes is gradual and often without symptoms. A blood test ordered at the time of a routine physical examination often is the only way for a person to detect that he or she has this disease.
More than half of the people with Type II diabetes don’t even know they have the disease.
Since you have just been diagnosed as having Type II diabetes, you should consider yourself to be quite lucky. You’re fortunate because you can do something to control this disease and make your life happier, healthier and perhaps even longer.
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