Have you ever thought that you or a member of your family would contract the dreaded autoimmune disease called Diabetes? Diabetes is not a temporary illness. It is a lifelong sickness that affects not only the person diagnosed with the disease, but the family as well.
Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), also called as juvenile onset diabetes mellitus or popularly known as Type I diabetes, is an autoimmune disease where one's own antibodies mistakenly attacks healthy blood cells. The anti-bodies destroy the beta cells of the pancreas. The beta cells are the ones responsible for insulin production thereby leading to failure of the pancreas to produce the insulin hormone.
Antibodies are part of the body's immune system that are produced by the body to attack infections or inflammations. There are cases wherein abnormal antibodies are produced therefore attack even healthy cells. To resolve this problem, diabetic patients take insulin shots every day to survive.
Signs and Symptoms
People who suspect that they are diabetic should look for the following signs and symptoms.
Blurred Vision/Rapid vision change - when the sugar levels in blood are too high, fluid deprivation from the tissues including the eye lenses. These causes blurring of vision and can lead to blindness later on.
Polyuria - diabetic people experience frequent urination. As tissues are deprived of fluids this causes extreme thirst resulting in frequent drinking. Frequent drinking affects urination leading to more frequency.
Polydipsia - Increased thirst for the same reason as stated above
Polyphagia - increased hunger caused by the lack of insulin affecting the sugar that reaches body cells. As the sugar cannot be delivered to cells, the cells are deprived of energy and thus hunger is triggered.
Weight loss - because blood sugar is not supplied in sufficient amounts to the cells, it shrinks from the deprivation causing shrinking of the cells of muscles and fat cells, which lead to weight loss.
Slow healing of infections and cuts - cuts heal extremely slowly which can lead to susceptibility to infections and inflammations
Extreme fatigue - because cells are deprived of energy sources, the result is fatigue
Obese and overweight people are often the group of people who are commonly diagnosed with the autoimmune disease. Support and care should always be considered carefully in all persons with this medical condition. With children especially, they should never be given the impression that they are different as this can cause many social and emotional problems later in life. While diabetes can affect emotions, this should be taken into consideration when caring for people with diabetes of all ages. There should be a balance so that this disease will not adversely affect people. Support groups for both the affected person and the caregiver are available and it is good to take advantage of these support groups. While the disease is serious, normalcy can be attained with proper care and management.
Kristine loves to travel and works as a freelance writer. She also worked as a Key Accounts Executive in the Philippines. If you are looking for technical content writer check out her profile at oDesk.
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