Exhausted? Get yourself checked

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by elevated blood sugar levels. This happens either due to defective insulin secrection or action or both helps in burning of glucose obtained from food to give energy. There are two major types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2. Type 1 diabetes (earlier called juvenileonset or insulin-dependent diabetes), usually develops in children or young adults. In this type, the body completely stops producing insulin.

In type 2 diabetes (previously known as adult-onset or non insulin-dependent diabetes), the body produces some insulin, but it is not enough. Moreover, there is insulin resistance. In other words, the available insulin does not work properly. In both types of diabetes, the signs and symptoms are similar.

Symptoms of diabetes

These include
*being very thirsty
*frequent urge to urinate
*weight loss
*increased hunger
*blurry vision
*irritability
*tingling hands or feet
*skin, bladder or gum infections
*wounds that don’t heal
*itching in the genital areas
*extreme unexplained fatigue

It must be remembered, however that up to 50 percent of patients with diabetes may not have any symptoms at all. Such cases come out only during routine investigations such as master health checkup and pre-employment checkps.in this case, people live for month, even years without knowing they have the disease. Often diabetes attacks so gradually that symptoms may not even be recognized.

Diagnosis of diabetes.

Diabetes should be ideally diagnosed after an oral glucose tolerance test (GTT). This helps to pickup early status of the disease. The test involves testing of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and two-hour plasma glucose (2hr PG) after intake of 75 Gms of glucose dissolved in water the diagnostic cut off for diabetes and the two “pre-diabetic stages” namely impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) are given in the table below.

Those who have pre-diabetes i.e. IFG or IGT are at increased risk of developing diabetes. Such individuals must undergo a GTT at least once a year and should follow a proper diet and exercise program and if overweight, reduce weight in order to prevent diabetes. Diabetes can also be diagnosed, if random or casual plasma glucose is greater than 200 mg/dl or more on more than two occasions in the presence of symptoms of diabetes.

Thus, early detection is the key to prevention and effective control of diabetes. As diabetes is largely asymptomatic, regular screening for diabetes is of utmost importance. One should not wait for symptoms like thirst, excess urination and weight loss as they are late symptoms. If one has a family history of diabetes or is over weight, one should undergo a prevention diabetic check-up as soon as possible.

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