#What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a complex group of diseases with a variety of causes. People with diabetes have high blood glucose, also called high blood sugar or hyperglycemia.
Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism—the way the body uses digested food for energy. The digestive tract breaks down carbohydrates—sugars and starches found in many foods—into glucose, a form of sugar that enters the bloodstream. With the help of the hormone insulin, cells throughout the body absorb glucose and use it for energy. Diabetes develops when the body doesn’t make enough insulin or is not able to use insulin effectively, or both.
Insulin is made in the pancreas, an organ located behind the stomach. The pancreas contains clusters of cells called islets. Beta cells within the islets make insulin and release it into the blood
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#Type 1 diabetes causes
Type 1 diabetes is caused by the immune system destroying the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. This causes diabetes by leaving the body without enough insulin to function normally.
- This is called an autoimmune reaction, or autoimmune cause, because the body is attacking itself.
- There is no specific diabetes causes, but the following triggers may be involved:
- Viral or bacterial infection
- Chemical toxins within food
- Unidentified component causing autoimmune reaction
#Type 2 diabetes causes
Type 2 diabetes causes are usually multifactorial – more than one diabetes cause is involved. Often, the most overwhelming factor is a family history of type 2 diabetes.
This is the most likely type 2 diabetes cause.
There are a variety of risk factors for type 2 diabetes, any or all of which increase the chances of developing the condition.
These include:
- Obesity
- Living a sedentary lifestyle
- Increasing age
- Bad diet
We live in a world where pace outdoes every other priority in our lives. And so we are getting more and more exposed towards the life threatening diseases. These keep breeding inside our body as an outcome of keeping pace with the hustle bustle, we call modern life. India was termed the Diabetic capital of the world recently and Curofy decided to understand the reasons behind it by conducting a survey. The survey focusing on this year’s World Health Day theme was titled – Halt the rise! Beat diabetes.
A total of 1,617 doctors responded to questions pertaining to the causes of rise in diabetic cases in India and pA total of 1,617 doctors responded to questions pertaining to the causes of rise in diabetic cases in India and patients reaction to the treatment modalities.
On being asked why India ranks as the diabetic capital of the world, 58.8% of the total doctors attributed this title to the lifestyle prevalent in modern and competitive India. Interestingly, family history was considered as a contributing factor by only 7.2%.
Yes it is a lifestyle problem, doctor’s would strongly recommend 150 minutes per week walking and eating from the farm as much as possible fresh fruits and vegetables should top the chart.” Says Dr Sujeet Jha Director Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity, Max Health careatients reaction to the treatment modalities.
What’s more thought provoking is that 65% of the doctors said that their patients preferred alternate medicine to their allopathic counterparts on being initially diagnosed. This has opened new windows of discussion about the veracity of such medication. Explaining this, Dr Rajeev Patni, Consultant Diabetology & Endocrinology, Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital, Jaipur India said, “It is true that patients prefer other form of medications, there are multiple reasons for it – for starter, patients feel that if once they begin with allopathy it will be for lifetime, also the big misconception that naturopathy can cure them completely or for that matter any other form of therapy clubbed with walking can change the diabetes status; which is not true.”