Diabetes Research Paper Example

📌Category: Health, Health Care, Illness
📌Words: 1135
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 24 April 2021

“Diabetes is a complex disease that occurs when blood glucose, or the blood sugar, levels are too high,” according to medlineplus.gov. Glucose comes from most foods that people eat and insulin helps the glucose get into the cells to provide energy. In type one diabetes, the body does not make insulin like it needs to. In type two, the body just does not use insulin well, but it makes it. Over time, the excess of glucose that comes with having diabetes can be extremely dangerous to the kidneys, eyes, and nerves. The National Diabetes Statistics report from cdc.gov states that “a little over one in ten people in the U.S. have diabetes.” Type two diabetes is the most common form. Most people in the United States with diabetes have type two, and more and more people are being diagnosed with type two diabetes every day. Because this disease is so common, it is important for people all over the world to learn about the symptoms, treatment, effects, and prevention of both type one and type two diabetes. 

Prevention of both type one and type two diabetes looks different for everyone. Prevention also depends on what type the person develops. Both type one and type two are inherited, therefore if someone has the genes for type two diabetes, “they have the potential to develop it, but it does not always occur, says the About Type Two Diabetes article from wa.kaiserpermanente.org.” While type one diabetes is not preventable, type two diabetes is sometimes preventable and consists of mainly lifestyle changes. Some examples of these changes can be losing weight, being active, drinking more water, and eating healthier foods. Often, prevention does not need a strict diet, but smaller portions and self-control. In both types, there is nothing a person can do to actually stop diabetes from affecting their life.

Diabetes, a common disease, affects people of all ages all over the world. Around 422 million people all over the world have diabetes, which is around 9.6% of the adult population. In addition, 1.6 million deaths a year are caused by diabetes. Type one diabetes is normally diagnosed in children and young adults, while type two occurs most often in middle aged people and older people. Another type of diabetes is gestational diabetes, that only develops in pregnant women, and causes high blood sugar and can affect the pregnancy and the baby’s health. Gestational diabetes is temporary, and normally goes away after the birth of the baby.

Again, a lot of things having to do with diabetes differ from person to person, especially concerning symptoms and testing. Some of the common symptoms that people notice either before or while having diabetes include fatigue, dry skin, thirst, losing weight unexpectedly, and slow-healing sores. There are a variety of tests run to diagnose diabetes. The test run the most often is the A1C test. The A1C test measures the average blood sugar level over the course of two to three months. “A1C below 5.7% is normal, between 5.7% and 6.4% indicates prediabetes, and above 6.5% is a sign of diabetes,” says the Diabetes Testing and Diagnosis study from niddk.nih.gov. There are many more tests run by doctors to diagnose diabetes like the glucose tolerance test, fasting blood sugar test, and glucose screening test. The glucose tolerance test monitors how someone reacts to the glucose after eating a meal. The tests run to diagnose are pretty similar to every person across the board, but the symptoms differ in every person, because everybody is different.

Treatment of diabetes can differ from person to person based on their doctor’s treatment plan. For type one diabetes, there can be numerous ways to try and treat it. Insulin injections, blood sugar check-ins, and carbohydrate counting are the most common of the numerous treatments. Blood sugar checks are probably one of the more important treatments, because blood sugar can change unpredictably. A normal blood sugar level is anywhere less than 140 mg/dl. Between 140mg/dl and 200 mg/dl is a sign of prediabetes. If the level is more than 200 mg/dl for two hours, that indicates diabetes. For type two diabetes, the treatments are not as thorough. Most are daily changes like monitoring food intake and physical activity levels. Likely, doctors are receptive to the patient’s concerns about the changes they will need to make in their lives. There is not a panacea for diabetes. For people that have diabetes, all they can really do is try and prevent it from getting worse.

There is so much people do not know about diabetes, and not all of it is boring. Since this disease is common, several celebrities we know and love have been diagnosed with it. A few examples are Nick Jonas, Tom Hanks, and Drew Carey. Also, a family in Pennsylvania seemed to have an unusual response to their daughter being diagnosed with diabetes. Sixteen year old Shannon Nixon died in her home because her parents refused to use the medicine from the doctors and relied on prayer instead. The couple was later sentenced to probation and community service, because they would not help their daughter survive. On another note, schools all over the world continuously run tests and studies about different diseases. A study conducted at Harvard showed that eating one serving of cooked oatmeal two to four times a week was linked to a 16% reduction in the risk of developing type two diabetes. One serving five or six times a week was linked to a 39% reduction in risk.

There is a lot that our world does not know about diabetes. Most people assume that diabetes is caused by eating too much sugar, but actually is an auto-immune disease where the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in areas like the pancreas. A lot of people assume that type two is caused by obesity, which is not incorrect, but there are many more causes for type two diabetes. Some other causes are genes and the natural rise of blood sugar as someone’s age increases. Overall, there are several misconceptions that people have about this widespread disease.

Diabetes is a serious disease that affects people all over the world every day. There is not a definite way to stop the body from being affected by it, but there are some changes people make in life to prevent type two diabetes. As for type one, there is not anything anyone can do. Diabetes can be detrimental to a person’s health, or something small they just have to consider daily. Symptoms and treatment can vary from person to person, because everyone has a different body that reacts differently to several medicines. People all over the world need to know about the symptoms, treatment, and testing of diabetes because of the vast number of people it affects.  

 

Works Cited

“About Type 2 Diabetes.” About Type 2 Diabetes - Causes, Genetics, Symptoms | Kaiser Permanente Washington, wa.kaiserpermanente.org/healthAndWellness/index.jhtml?item=/common/healthAndWellness/conditions/diabetes/type2.html.

“Diabetes Tests & Diagnosis.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 Dec. 2016, www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/tests-diagnosis#:~:text=1-,What tests are used to diagnose diabetes and prediabetes?,plasma glucose (RPG) test.

“Diabetes | Type 1 Diabetes | Type 2 Diabetes.” MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 10 Dec. 2020, medlineplus.gov/diabetes.html.

“National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2020.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Feb. 2020, www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/features/diabetes-stat-report.html#:~:text=34.2 million Americans—just over,Asians and non-Hispanic whites. 


 

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