Diabetes mellitus is rapidly spreading around the world, and it does not matter that scientists have not figured out all the reasons why this disease can occur. In this situation, a person can only pay attention to his body.
And let the symptom of another disease be confused with the manifestation of diabetes - if you suspect it, you should inform the doctor immediately (especially since there is also asymptomatic diabetes).
It is customary to qualify diabetes mellitus as an endocrine pathology with a severe clinical picture. In this case, the initial stages of the disease are often asymptomatic or characterized by polymorphism of manifestations. However, there are certain signs of pathology, which you can learn about in the material below.
causes of diabetes
Despite the apparent abundance of reasons for the disease, there are two main causes:
- sugar (specific) and food (general);
- mental readiness to damage the body (stress).
Despite the search for new therapies for diabetes, sucrose continues to conquer the world in parallel. Sugar acquires the most exotic and seductive appearances - even the recipe for tomato ketchup is not complete without the addition of sugar, not to mention unthinkable wedding cakes and seemingly innocent children's breakfasts.
Relation. Most natural fruits and fruits do not contain sucrose - it is made from the juice of plants that are not consumed raw by humans. Therefore, it can be traced back to artificially obtained chemical compounds.
Food in general has also become a threat to health. No one has ever eaten so much and so often. Obsessive over-feeding has turned him into a perpetual muncher - and the strain on the pancreas, which has its own rhythm of life, becomes constant and threatening.
Alcoholic formulations serve both as a direct cause of necrosis of glandular tissue and as a means of inducing organ ischemia.
That also applies to:
- tobacco smoking;
- Drug consumption;
- excessive dependence on drugs: sleeping pills, tranquilizers, painkillers.
The second major cause of diabetes is stress. And one of the levers of stress is the constant reminder of the threat of diabetes that follows a person everywhere. Alarmed by such a prospect, the mind creates an unconscious premise for disease.
Another factor in the spread of diabetes around the world is due to advances in medicine. If 100-150 years ago diabetics rarely had offspring, now the conditionality of the disease by heredity has increased a hundredfold, 100% diabetics have a high probability of giving birth to the same diabetics.
The world has become an even more comfortable sanctuary for diabetes through sedentary lifestyle with its inevitable companions: obesity, constipation, osteoporosis, microthrombi and metabolic disorders in all body systems, which total environmental pollution (another cause of diabetes) faces like an innocent baby.
classification of the disease
According to the etiological (causal) classification, diabetes is differentiated:
- Type I (also called insulin dependent or "juvenile");
- Type II (which is insulin independent);
- pregnancy (due to pregnancy);
- for reasons of another plan (due to previous infections, taking medication or other reasons).
There is a division of the disease into cases of varying severity:
- bright;
- moderate;
- difficult.
Depending on the state of carbohydrate metabolism, diabetes can be:
- compensated;
- undercompensated;
- decompensated.
Classification according to the presence of complications includes diabetic consequences in the form of:
- Micro- or macroangiopathies (vascular lesions);
- neuropathies (damage to nerve tissue and its structures);
- retinopathy (damage to the organs of vision);
- nephropathy (kidney pathology);
- diabetic foot (a separately isolated syndrome that describes the pathology of blood vessels and other structures involving the lower extremities).
The clinical diagnosis made on the basis of the above system already gives a brief and comprehensive picture of the patient's condition at the first reading. It is enough for a person without special education to know about the existence of 2 types and 3 degrees of severity of the disease.
The first symptoms of the disease
As can be seen from the classic literal translation of the name of the disease from Latin (honey diabetes), diabetes mellitus has two main characteristics:
- sweet taste of urine;
- frequent and profuse urination.
Doctors of the Middle Ages only suspected an excess of natural grape sugar in the blood - glucose, but were able to confirm the diagnosis in another way - by tasting the patient's urine. After all, due to a disruption in the process of kidney filtration, glucose in diabetes gets into the urine (usually it shouldn't be there). Later, the assumptions of the fathers of medicine were brilliantly confirmed - the disease also includes hyperglycemia (an excessive amount of glucose in the blood).
It is possible to be guided by these canons even today, but it should be remembered that the presence of both signs speaks for diabetes: sweet and copious urine. Diabetes can also be insipidus, but this is a completely different disease, the causes of which are completely different.
With unmanifest (practically asymptomatic) or sluggish diabetes, the first signs may be its secondary symptoms (uncharacteristic of this particular pathology) in the form of:
- visual disturbances;
- Headache;
- unjustified muscle weakness;
- dryness in the oral cavity;
- Itching of the skin and mucous membranes (especially common in the intimate area);
- difficult-to-heal skin lesions;
- a noticeable smell of acetone from the urine.
Their presence does not allow diagnosis of type I or II of the disease - only a study of pathology by a specialist doctor, as well as a study of blood composition in combination with other tests can distinguish between them.
Special Properties
They are more characteristic of type I, they approach suddenly and forcefully, therefore the patient can indicate not only the year of their occurrence, but also the month (to the week associated with a specific event).
This includes:
- polyuria (excessive and frequent urination);
- polydipsia (unquenchable thirst);
- polyphagy ("wolfish appetite" that does not bring saturation);
- noticeable (and increasing) weight loss.
It should be noted that this is not a question of a temporary stay in a difficult period of life, after which everything will return to normal, but of the stable suffering of the body for weeks and months.
In addition to glucose, the excess of which does not become a nutrient, but a compound that disrupts the established metabolism and disrupts the natural biochemical balance in the body, substances accumulate in it that have a toxic effect on the structures:
- nerve tissue;
- hearts;
- kidneys;
- Liver;
- Ships.
The most well-known of these is acetone, which is known to the brain for the state of intoxication that occurs after consuming an alcoholic beverage. The accumulation of acetone and other incompletely oxidized metabolites leads to the failure of all body systems, especially the nervous and vascular systems, which ensure transport and communication in the body.
In a critical case (with a sharp increase or decrease in blood sugar), diabetes can lead to the onset of a coma, when circulatory disorders in the brain can lead to the death of the patient.
In what cases is it impossible to postpone a visit to the doctor?
The answer to this question will become clear after some clarification.
Type I diabetes is the result of insufficient insulin production, which limits blood sugar levels. In the type II variant, insulin is sufficient, but due to the properties of the body, its ability to regulate blood sugar is limited - insulin is simply not able to reduce its content. Excess glucose turns it into a toxin that disrupts the normal course of all chemical reactions in the body, not just carbohydrate metabolism.
The degree of disturbances in tissue metabolism and the body's ability to compensate for these disturbances determine the severity of diabetes.
With a mild course, the glucose level does not exceed the threshold of 8 units (mmol / l), its daily fluctuations are insignificant.
The moderate form is characterized by an increase in glucose already to 14 units with episodes of ketosis-ketoacidosis (an excess of acetone and similar substances in the blood) fraught with vascular disorders.
In severe cases, the level of glucose exceeds 14 units, its fluctuations throughout the day are significant - there are serious problems with the blood supply to tissues, while disruptions in nutrition of the brain can provoke a coma.
From here follow the sensations experienced by the patient, which have either the character of small signs or manifestations typical of diabetes:
- polyuria (diabetes) with sweet urine;
- Polydipsia (thirst that does not go away even with frequent and copious drinking);
- polyphagy (irrepressible gluttony);
- unmotivated weight loss.
The presence of this syndrome (complex of signs) is a good reason to visit an endocrinologist or, in the absence of this specialist, a therapist who will conduct the necessary initial studies.
The reason for becoming the subject of close examination can also be disorders of the nervous system caused by diabetes, which are detected by a neuropathologist in the form of inexplicable symptoms:
- Dizziness;
- nausea;
- noise and ringing in the ears;
- Vomit;
- transient sensory or movement disorders;
- Problems with perception and memory.
Small signs of diabetic vascular disease, manifested by eye symptoms, can also be deviations from the functioning of the organs of vision in the form of:
- reducing its severity;
- drying of the cornea (sensation like dryness, "sandiness", itching or pain in the eyes);
- blurring the outlines of objects;
- waves and flies in the eyes;
- periodic occurrence of blind spots and loss of entire fields of vision;
- unexplained "darkening" of the eyes.
The presence of diabetic vascular disease may primarily appeal to physicians with other profiles:
- in trophic skin diseases (formation of ulcers on the lower extremities) - to the surgeon;
- with non-healing skin lesions - to a dermatologist;
- with bleeding, non-healing sores in the mouth or the appearance of sores - to the dentist.
The reason for seeking immediate medical help should be any case of sudden loss of consciousness, the appearance of a condition known as "lost tongue", "numb arms, legs", dizziness, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, although these symptoms may appear, characterized by alcohol or drug intoxication or taking stable tablets prescribed by a doctor.