Essay: Understanding Diabetes: Types, Symptoms, and Diagnosis

Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases based on what the blood sugar levels is in each person there are many types of Diabetes throughout the world like gestational diabetes, type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes the difference with type 2 diabetes is that they do not produce enough insulin are not responsive to insulin and it is a combination of both. The reason I thought about doing the project on this disease is because I notice one of my friends from elementary schools had diabetes due to being passed on to from their parents without them knowing about it unto the child shows sign of the symptoms and I want to see how diabetes develop and see if there is a way to prevent getting diabetes and see if it has a cure. According to Kenneth S. Polonsky he stated that ‘Diabetes have been discovered back in 1500 B.C by Aretaeus of Cappadocia one of ancient Greek physicians who came up with the term diabetes from the ancient Egyptians.(Polonsky) He gotten this term when he examined the patient’s urine who was suffering from the disease and described them as sweet but Aretaeus of Cappadocia wasn’t the only one people who discovered diabetes the others were Doctor Thomas Willis in 1675 when he added the term mellitus and the two German scientist named German scientist Oskar Minkowski and German physician Joseph von by describing the connections between pancreas and diabetes as too common. Diabetes happen when there is too much glucose in the blood and not enough cells in the body.
According to Adrienne Santos-Longhurst she stated that Diabetes type 2 is more prevalent towards Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans than among Caucasians in the United States but also effect children in all ethnic backgrounds. (Longhurst) the disease is random because diabetes pretty much gets everybody the ethnic backgrounds that have a high rates of Diabetes does not mean it only targets one group it also targets others as well like whites or Hispanics. The symptoms of type 2 Diabetes is very similar to type 1 but they can cause serious problems like going to the bathroom over and over again Unquenchable Thirst, Weakness and Fatigue, tingling or Numbness in Your Hands, Legs or Feet and blurred vision.
There are three tests that most hospitals use to determine if that person has diabetes or not the first is the Blood Glucose Test second Oral Glucose Tolerance Test and Hemoglobin A1c Test.
Diabetes is diagnosed by doctors when they use the glucometers to monitor the blood sugar levels if the test result shows that your blood sugar level is between 70 to 100 the then you don’t have diabetes but you will have diabetes if your blood sugar levels is greater than or equal to 126 mg/dL.
The Oral Glucose is done during pregnancy to diagnose Gestational Diabetes meaning to see if the baby is going to be healthy or diabetes are going to be passed on to the child . The Hemoglobin A1c test helps with how good is that person diabetes is being controlled and provides the average of blood sugar control within a six- to 12-week period and is used in conjunction with home blood sugar monitoring system that most seniors use while they are at home on their own and in nursing facilities. According to Romesh Khardori the author of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Treatment & Management article stated that ‘in order to treat type 2 Diabetes then that person should set appropriate goal setting, go on a diet and exercise 5 days a week if possible, use Medications approved by your doctor and get an Appropriate self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and complications’. (Khardori) the prognosis of type 2 Diabetes is that the person will experience insulin resistance when they age and it depends on how well an individual modifies his or her risk of complications. The current research relating to diabetes is preventing complications from any types of Diabetes. According to George L. King the author of Diabetes Research: Advancing toward a Cure He stated that ‘Finally, researchers who specialize in metabolism study the significance of exercise on improving the use of glucose through the body, which might also have an effect in preventing cardiovascular disease.'(King) ‘The Diabetes researchers are making great progress in understanding the basic science of diabetes. For every new strategy that succeeds, the benefit to millions of people will be huge.’ (King)