Diabetes is spreading rapidly all over the world and it does not matter that scientists have not discovered all the causes of this disease. In this case, a person can only be attentive to his body.
And the symptom of another disease should be mistaken for the manifestation of diabetes - if there is any doubt, you should clarify with the doctor immediately (especially if you have asymptomatic diabetes).
It is customary to classify diabetes mellitus as an endocrinological pathology with a severe clinical picture. In this case, often the initial stages of the disease are asymptomatic or characterized by polymorphism of manifestations. However, there are certain signs of pathology that you can learn from the following material.
Causes of diabetes
Although there are many apparent causes of the disease, its main causes are two:
- sugar (in particular) and food (in general);
- psychological readiness to harm the body (stress state).
Despite the search for new treatments for diabetes, sucrose continues to take over the world in parallel. Sugar is given the most exotic and alluring looks - even a recipe for tomato ketchup is not complete without added sugar, not to mention unimaginable wedding cakes and seemingly innocent children's breakfasts.
ReferenceMost natural fruits and vegetables do not contain sucrose - it is produced from the juice of plants that are not consumed raw by humans. Therefore, it can be attributed to artificially obtained chemical compounds.
Food in general has also become a health hazard. Man has never eaten so much and so often. Obsessive offers of food have turned him into a creature of constant chewing - and the burden on the pancreas, which has its own rhythm of life, is constant and threatening.
Alcoholic preparations serve both as a direct cause of gland tissue necrosis and as a way to cause organ ischemia.
This also applies to:
- smoking;
- drug use;
- excessive addiction to drugs: sleeping pills, sedatives, painkillers.
The second main cause of diabetes is stress. And one of the levers of stress is the constant reminder of the danger of diabetes that haunts a person everywhere. A mind alarmed by such a prospect creates a subconscious precondition for disease.
Another factor in the spread of diabetes around the world is related to the development of medicine. If 100-150 years ago, diabetics rarely gave birth to children, now the conditionality of the disease by heredity has increased hundreds of times, 100% of diabetics with a high probability give birth to the same diabetics.
Inevitable companions: obesity, constipation, osteoporosis, microthrombi and metabolic disorders in all body systems, general pollution of the environment (another cause of diabetes) thanks to the physical inactivity that counteracts it, the world has become a more comfortable shelter for diabetes. like an innocent baby.
Disease classification
According to the etiological (cause) classification, diabetes is divided into:
- Type I (also called insulin-dependent or "juvenile");
- Type II (non-insulin dependent);
- pregnancy (due to pregnancy);
- reasons for another plan (due to past infections, drug use or other reasons).
The disease is divided into cases with different degrees of severity:
- light;
- average;
- heavy
According to the level of carbohydrate metabolism, diabetes can be:
- compensated;
- subcompensated;
- decompensated.
Classification according to the presence of complications includes diabetic results in the following form:
- 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 separate isolated syndrome that describes the pathology of blood vessels and other structures with the involvement of the lower extremities).
The clinical diagnosis based on the above systematics already gives a brief and comprehensive picture of the patient's condition in the first reading. It is enough for a person without special education to know about the existence of 2 types of the disease and 3 degrees of severity.
The first signs of the disease
As is clear from the classical literal translation of the name of the disease from Latin (honey diabetes), diabetes mellitus has two main features:
- sweet taste of urine;
- frequent and profuse urination.
Doctors of the Middle Ages suspected only an excess of natural grape sugar - glucose - in the blood, but they were able to justify the diagnosis in another way - by tasting the patient's urine. Glucose enters the urine (normally it should not be there) in diabetes due to a disturbance in the kidney filtration process. Later, the assumptions of the fathers of medicine were brilliantly confirmed - the disease also includes hyperglycemia (excessive amount of glucose in the blood).
It is possible to follow these laws even at the present time, but remembering that the presence of two signs in favor of diabetes is certain: sweet and copious urine. It can also be for diabetes insipidus, but this is a completely different disease, the development of which is caused by completely different reasons.
With unmanifested (practically asymptomatic) or slow diabetes, the first signs can be in the form of its secondary symptoms (not specific to this particular pathology):
- visual disturbances;
- headaches;
- unreasonable muscle weakness;
- dryness in the oral cavity;
- itching involving the skin and mucous membranes (especially often in the intimate area);
- skin lesions that are difficult to heal;
- noticeable smell of acetone from urine.
Their presence does not allow the diagnosis of type I or II of the disease - only the study of pathology by a specialist doctor, plus the study of blood composition together with other tests can distinguish them.
Special features
They are more characteristic of type I, they come suddenly and strongly, so the patient can report not only the year of appearance, but also the month (up to the week associated with a certain event).
These include:
- polyuria (abundant and frequent urination);
- polydipsia (constant thirst);
- polyphagia ("monster's appetite" that does not bring satiety);
- noticeable (and increasing) weight loss.
It should be noted that this is not about the temporary living of any difficult period of life, after which everything returns to normal, about the stable evil of the body for weeks and months.
Along with glucose, its excess is not food, but turning into a compound that disrupts the established metabolism and disrupts the natural biochemical balance in the body, accumulating substances that have a toxic effect on structures:
- nervous tissue;
- hearts;
- kidneys;
- liver;
- ships.
The most famous of these is acetone, which is well known to the brain due to the state of intoxication that occurs after drinking alcohol. Accumulation of acetone and other incompletely oxidized metabolic products causes failure of all body systems that provide transport and communication in the body, primarily nervous and vascular systems.
In a critical situation (with a sharp increase or decrease in blood glucose), diabetes can lead to the onset of coma, when blood circulation disorders in the brain can lead to the death of the patient.
In what cases should you not postpone a visit to the doctor?
The answer to this question will become clear after certain clarifications.
Type I diabetes is the result of insufficient production of insulin, which limits blood glucose levels. In the type II variant, insulin is sufficient, but due to the characteristics of the body, its ability to regulate blood sugar is limited - insulin simply cannot reduce its content. As a result of excess glucose, it becomes a toxin that disrupts the normal course of all chemical reactions in the body, not only related to carbohydrate metabolism.
It is the level of tissue metabolism disorder and the body's ability to compensate for these disorders that determine the severity of diabetes.
With a light course, the glucose level does not exceed the limit of 8 units (mmol / l), daily fluctuations are insignificant.
The average form is characterized by an increase in glucose up to 14 units, with episodes of ketosis-ketoacidosis (an excess of acetone and similar substances in the blood) accompanied by disruption of blood vessels.
In severe cases, the glucose level exceeds 14 units, its fluctuations during the day are significant - there are serious problems with blood supply to tissues, and interruptions in brain nutrition can lead to coma.
Here, follow the patient's sensations, which are either minor symptoms or symptoms typical of diabetes:
- polyuria with sweet urine (diabetes);
- polydipsia (the appearance of thirst, even with frequent and abundant drinking is not eliminated);
- polyphagia (unquenchable gluttony);
- unmotivated weight loss.
The presence of this syndrome (complex of symptoms) is a good reason to consult an endocrinologist or, in the absence of this specialist, a therapist who will conduct the necessary preliminary studies.
The reason for becoming the object of close study can be the disorders of the nervous system caused by diabetes in an unexplained form, detected by a neuropathologist:
- dizziness;
- nausea;
- noise and ringing in the ears;
- vomiting;
- transient sensory or motor disturbances;
- perception and memory problems.
Small signs of diabetic vascular disease, manifested by eye symptoms, can also be deviations from the function of visual organs in the form of:
- reduce its severity;
- drying of the cornea (feeling of dryness, "sand", itching or pain in the eyes);
- blurring the contours of objects;
- waves and flies in the eyes;
- periodic occurrence of blind spots and loss of all fields of vision;
- unexplained "darkening" of the eyes.
The presence of diabetic vascular disease can lead to the main referral of doctors with other profiles:
- with trophic skin disorders (formation of ulcers in the lower extremities) - to the surgeon;
- with non-healing skin lesions - to a dermatologist;
- with bleeding, non-healing wounds in the mouth or the appearance of wounds - to the dentist.
The reason for immediate medical attention should be the onset of any sudden loss of consciousness, "tongue loss", "arm, leg numbness", dizziness, nausea and vomiting, even if these symptoms are present. explained by alcohol or drug intoxication or taking stable pills prescribed by a doctor.