Diabetes may be asymptomatic | Diabetes is a hereditary disease | For diabetes sweets are forbidden | Diabetes cannot be cured | Diabetes is life threatening
There are many misconceptions about diabetes that even many experienced diabetics believe in. We decided to collect the most popular myths and separate the truth from fiction.
Diabetes may be asymptomatic
Unfortunately, this is true, but only for type 2 diabetes. This form can occur almost without symptoms for years. Therefore, precious time is often missed when you can reverse the process and stop the disease at the initial stage. The disease often manifests itself when sugar exceeds 9-10 mmol / L. Usually, the patient begins to tire quickly, constantly feels weak, loses weight, suffers from dry skin, thirst, and frequent urination.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (insulin-dependent form) usually immediately manifests itself with severe symptoms: the temperature decreases, eyesight worsens, headaches, dizziness, and a pungent smell of acetone from the mouth appear. Cramps, loss of consciousness are possible. The disease progresses rapidly. If treatment is not started, dangerous complications are possible, including coma and death.
Diabetes is a hereditary disease
Yes, genes that are responsible for predisposing to diabetes exist. They are passed not only from parents, but also through a generation, from grandfathers and grandmothers (most often through the male line). But genetics does not play a decisive role, but only increases the chances of acquiring the disease in certain conditions.
According to studies, the probability of having a child with diabetes in a couple, where one of the spouses is diabetic, is 5%. The same chances of getting sick in children of healthy couples. The chances of offspring worsen only if both parents have endocrine disease – up to 21%.
The main catalysts that contribute to the onset of diabetes are a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight, hypertension, and high cholesterol. The risk group includes women whose children were born weighing more than 4.5 kg (also newborns themselves weighing more than 4.5 kg or less than 2.3 kg) or gestational diabetes.
For diabetes sweets are forbidden
Diabetics, like all other people, need carbohydrates – this is the main source of energy. Therefore, they can eat sweets. The main problem is that the body cannot properly absorb glucose. Glucose levels increase sharply, sometimes the concentration can be several times higher than the norm.
To avoid glucose surges and poor health (however, like everyone else), it is recommended that diabetics control the amount of sweets eaten. First, it is best to avoid products that contain a lot of sugar, for example, soda and candy.
According to a leading expert, in people with diabetes, insulin is not released in the right amount when glucose enters the blood, like in healthy people. Therefore, sugar levels can rise sharply. The most dangerous are fast-acting carbohydrates, which are better to refrain from.
Diabetes cannot be cured
Unfortunately, modern medicine is not able to overcome the disease, but can take it under control. Diabetes is caused by improper functioning of the hormonal system – endocrine diseases are practically not treatable. The chances of a cure remain only at the initial stage, when the disease has not yet manifested itself.
But the main problem is not diabetes itself, but complications. Problems with the heart, kidneys, diabetic foot syndrome, cataracts … They can be avoided if an appropriate diet is followed, medications are taken on a schedule, and the daily regimen is streamlined.
Typically, in diabetes, the diet is low in carbohydrates to reduce the burden on the pancreas. Small portions are recommended, it is better to eat a little, but often: 5-6 times a day, so that the flow of energy into the body is uniform. This makes it easier for the body to maintain sugar levels. As a result, insulin doses can be reduced.
Diabetes is life threatening
Yes, if diabetes is not treated or the treatment is prescribed incorrectly, it can cause complications in the work of the heart, blindness, renal failure, and cause heart attack, stroke, and glycemic coma. Diabetic foot, which can turn into sepsis or lead to amputation of limbs is also dangerous.
Most complications are caused by high sugar levels – with prolonged hyperglycemia, glucose combines with hemoglobin, which can no longer carry oxygen. To compensate for oxygen starvation, more red blood cells are produced. Blood becomes thick, tissue nutrition is disturbed. The longer the blood sugar is elevated, the more dangerous the complications.
You can avoid pathological changes in the body if you control the level of sugar and your well-being. In diabetes, it is especially important to monitor the condition of the legs, it is the lower limbs that are most affected due to impaired blood circulation. Recommended massages, daily baths with warm water, special creams. When wounds are identified, they must be treated immediately.
Practice shows that the timely and correct treatment of diabetes can minimize all risks and lead a full, fulfilling life.
DID YOU KNOW?
To check your sugar level, you don’t have to go to the clinic. The analysis can be done at home with the help of a glucometer, a small meter. Normal fasting glucose is from 3.5 to 5.5 mmol / L. Immediately after eating, sugar rises to 8-9 mmol / L, and after 2-3 hours it stabilizes again.
Sugar levels vary with food intake, a simple blood glucose test does not always make it possible to detect diabetes. The most reliable method is a test for glycated hemoglobin (combined with glucose). The compound remains in the body for up to 3 months, so this analysis allows you to see latent hyperglycemia.
Doctors remind you that the sooner you diagnose diabetes, the better it can be treated. You can stop the disease and avoid taking sugar-lowering drugs.
You can choose a glucose analyzer and test strips at the best prices in a store or online, or by placing an order on this site.