What happens to the body when the blood sugar level rises? One thing, the kidneys are affected. All the blood in the body is continually filtered through these two large, bean-shaped organs. The kidneys get rid of many of the body’s waste products and poisons, along with enough water to flush them out of the body. Blood cells and large molecules such as proteins are held back by the kidneys’ filters. As the forming urine trickles through the kidneys, there is a continual trading of chemicals back and forth. If there is too much of something in the blood a paticular salt, for example the excess passes into the urine. If there is just enough of a substance, or even a shortageof it, the kidneys will hold it back, and it will pass back into the blood. In a healthy person, there is just the right amount of glucose in the blood, so the kidneys hold it all back. Normally there is no sugar in the urine. But when the blood sugar level rises beyond about 180 mg%, the excess sugar begins to spill over into the urine. Remember that the highest the blood sugar normally goes is about 160 mg%. The presence of glucose in the urine is call glucosuria.
The kidnyes are used to producing urine of a paticular concentration. This may vary somewhat during the day. You’ve probably noticed that your urine looks and smells much stronger first thing in the morning, when it has been accumulating all night, than it does later in the day. But there must always be enough water in the urine to keep irritating and poisonous nitrogen wastes well diluted. As the amount of glucose spilling into a diabetic’s urine increases, the urine becomes more concentrated. So the kidneys must put out more water to keep the urine diluted enough. When they do this, the body becomes dehydrated, and the person becomes thirsty. You can read more about this and much more information about diabetes at my blog.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Myths About Misconceptions Diabetes
Of all the major chronic diseases that affect Americans, diabetes, which many people erroneously call “sugar diabetes” seems to be the one most surrounded by myth and misinformation. Following are some of the mistakes that people make abut it, followed by the actual facts about the disease.
.Diabetes is contagious. No, it isn’t. You probably inherited a genetic tendency to become diabetic, and may pass it on to you children, but you didn’t catch it, or can you give it to others.
.You get diabetes from eating too much sugar. No, you don’t sugar itself does not cause the disease, although it certainly has an effect on blood glucose levels.
.The medications you doctor gives you will cure the diabetes. No, they won’t. Research scientist are hard at work on a cure, but one has not yet been found. Blood glucose levels can be controlled and brought to near-normal levels with diet, exercise, and medications, but the disease itself is not cured.
.The disease will go away by itself eventually. No, it won’t. Even if you have no symptoms and with Type 2 diabetes , you may not have had even when you were diagnosed, you still have diabetes, and you still need to work at controlling it and even when your symptoms disappear become your diabetes is well-controlled, you still have the disease.
.Diabetes is contagious. No, it isn’t. You probably inherited a genetic tendency to become diabetic, and may pass it on to you children, but you didn’t catch it, or can you give it to others.
.You get diabetes from eating too much sugar. No, you don’t sugar itself does not cause the disease, although it certainly has an effect on blood glucose levels.
.The medications you doctor gives you will cure the diabetes. No, they won’t. Research scientist are hard at work on a cure, but one has not yet been found. Blood glucose levels can be controlled and brought to near-normal levels with diet, exercise, and medications, but the disease itself is not cured.
.The disease will go away by itself eventually. No, it won’t. Even if you have no symptoms and with Type 2 diabetes , you may not have had even when you were diagnosed, you still have diabetes, and you still need to work at controlling it and even when your symptoms disappear become your diabetes is well-controlled, you still have the disease.
Diabetes Treatment
All diabetes treatment is aimed at one thing: controlling the level of glucose in the bloodstream. There are a variety of ways to do this, all of which depend on a number of factors: type of diabetes, age at onset, severity of symptoms and glucose level, presence of complicating factors, general health and current lifestyle, and changes the diabetic is willing to make.
The three major categories of treatment are diet, exercise, and medication. In Type 2 diabetes, diet and exercise alone are often all that is necessary to bring blood glucose down to manageable levels. Sometimes oral medication is necessary. Type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin in addition to diet and exercise.
Oral hypoglycemic agents help the body metabolize the glucose obtained from food. These drugs are not insulin, but they do stimulate insulin-producing cells to secrete more insulin, and they help overcome insulin resistance.
Insulin injections, which you learn to give to yourself with a variety of implements, may be combined with an oral hypoglycemic agent, but usually a diabetic who needs insulin takes only insulin. This hormone used to be manufactured from pork and beef, but now most of it is genetically engineered and synthesized, thus more effective in treating human diabetes. Controlling blood cholesterol and blood pressure also are important components of treatment as well.
The three major categories of treatment are diet, exercise, and medication. In Type 2 diabetes, diet and exercise alone are often all that is necessary to bring blood glucose down to manageable levels. Sometimes oral medication is necessary. Type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin in addition to diet and exercise.
Oral hypoglycemic agents help the body metabolize the glucose obtained from food. These drugs are not insulin, but they do stimulate insulin-producing cells to secrete more insulin, and they help overcome insulin resistance.
Insulin injections, which you learn to give to yourself with a variety of implements, may be combined with an oral hypoglycemic agent, but usually a diabetic who needs insulin takes only insulin. This hormone used to be manufactured from pork and beef, but now most of it is genetically engineered and synthesized, thus more effective in treating human diabetes. Controlling blood cholesterol and blood pressure also are important components of treatment as well.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Is Juvenile Diabetes Hereditary
There is the question whether Juvenile diabetes is passed down or not. Recent studies have shown that most juvenile diabetics have several specific types of chemicals on the surface of their cells that are not usually found in other people. These cell-surface chemicals, which are hereditary, might be the key to the increased vulnerability of the pancreas. They might be the chemicals against which a person’s body makes antibodies when viruses attack. Sometimes they might serve as chemical hooks by which invading viruses can attach themselves to the beta cells. Interestingly, maturity-onset diabetics do not show the same sort of correlation with special cell-suface chemicals that juvenile diabetics do.
Before the role of viruses in juvenile diabetes was suspected, it was thought that this was a hereditary disease that two had genes, one carried by each parent, could combine in the child to produce the disease, Thus two seemingly normal, nondiabetic parents could have diabetic children. If one of the parents was a diabetic, the chances of a child’s inheriting the disease would be even greater. But genetic studies have indicated that things don’t work that way after all. Studies of identical twins share exactly the same heredity. So if juvenile diabetes is inherited, you would expect that if one twin has juvenile diabetes, the other will have it too. Researchers were surprised to find that this was not the case. Joslin Foundation in Boston surveyed groups of juvenile diabetics who had identical twins and found that only about half the other twins also had the disease. Even to persent, of course, is much higher than the probability of two unrelated persons having diabetes.
Before the role of viruses in juvenile diabetes was suspected, it was thought that this was a hereditary disease that two had genes, one carried by each parent, could combine in the child to produce the disease, Thus two seemingly normal, nondiabetic parents could have diabetic children. If one of the parents was a diabetic, the chances of a child’s inheriting the disease would be even greater. But genetic studies have indicated that things don’t work that way after all. Studies of identical twins share exactly the same heredity. So if juvenile diabetes is inherited, you would expect that if one twin has juvenile diabetes, the other will have it too. Researchers were surprised to find that this was not the case. Joslin Foundation in Boston surveyed groups of juvenile diabetics who had identical twins and found that only about half the other twins also had the disease. Even to persent, of course, is much higher than the probability of two unrelated persons having diabetes.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Juvenile Diabetes
There is a good deal of evidence to support such views. Juvenile diabetes usually make little or no insulin, and examinations of tissue from their pancreases show that beta cells have indeed been destroyed. Often antibodies against these cells can be found circulating in a juvenile diabetic's blood. Studies in animals have revealed that some viruses actually do make a beeline for the pancreas, where they attack and destroy beta cells, such animals develop a condition that is very similar to juvenile diabetes in humans.
Most researchers now believe that many caases of juvenile diabetes are probably caused by virus infections. It may take several years for viruses lurking in the body to do enough damage to the pancreas to produce actual symptoms of diabetes. The viruses are thus like a fire that smolders unnoticed in a pile of trash for a long time before it suddenly burst into flames. The diabetic condition may be the result of a series of virus infections, each of which does its own bit of damage to the beta cells until insulin production is no longer able to meet the body's needs.
Most researchers now believe that many caases of juvenile diabetes are probably caused by virus infections. It may take several years for viruses lurking in the body to do enough damage to the pancreas to produce actual symptoms of diabetes. The viruses are thus like a fire that smolders unnoticed in a pile of trash for a long time before it suddenly burst into flames. The diabetic condition may be the result of a series of virus infections, each of which does its own bit of damage to the beta cells until insulin production is no longer able to meet the body's needs.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Diabetes Old and New
Describing how diabetes may develop is not the same thing as explaining why it happens. Just as a diabetic condition may be the result of any one of several things, it is believed that diabetes has not one single cause, but, rather, may causes. Some of these are still unknown, but researchers have already discovered a number of clues and some of the newest findings have tuned many old ideas about the condition upside down.
If you read a book about diabetes that was written before about 1976 or so, you may find a statement like, Diabetes is not contagious. You can’t catch diabetes. That is still true in one respect: you don’t need to fear that you will come down with diabetes if you work or play with a diabetic, or if you live with a diabetic patent, child, or spouse. Yet a number of recent studies have suggested that at least one type of diabetes is in fact infectious. However, you can’t catch it in quite the same way you would catch a cold or flu or tuberculosis-it’s much more complicated than that.
Medical workers have noticed that diabetes in children, normally a rather rare disease through it is growing ever more common, tends to occur in clusters. The number of cases will suddenly crop up in a particular locality. Careful studies of health records have shown that outbreaks of juvenile diabetes often follow an epidemic of a virus disease, such as mumps or rubella. The group of viruses called Coxsackie viruses have also been implicated. In some cases, the diabetes epidemic follows the virus epidemic closely in others, there seems to be a period of about three or four years between the out break of the virus disease and the appearance of symptoms of diabetes.
If you read a book about diabetes that was written before about 1976 or so, you may find a statement like, Diabetes is not contagious. You can’t catch diabetes. That is still true in one respect: you don’t need to fear that you will come down with diabetes if you work or play with a diabetic, or if you live with a diabetic patent, child, or spouse. Yet a number of recent studies have suggested that at least one type of diabetes is in fact infectious. However, you can’t catch it in quite the same way you would catch a cold or flu or tuberculosis-it’s much more complicated than that.
Medical workers have noticed that diabetes in children, normally a rather rare disease through it is growing ever more common, tends to occur in clusters. The number of cases will suddenly crop up in a particular locality. Careful studies of health records have shown that outbreaks of juvenile diabetes often follow an epidemic of a virus disease, such as mumps or rubella. The group of viruses called Coxsackie viruses have also been implicated. In some cases, the diabetes epidemic follows the virus epidemic closely in others, there seems to be a period of about three or four years between the out break of the virus disease and the appearance of symptoms of diabetes.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
How we get Diabetes:
In a healthy person, the pancreas works like a computer, sending out just enough of the right hormones to keep the blood glucose level within the narrow range of just enough. But in a diabetic, something has gone wrong with the finely tuned system. The blood sugar rises far above the normal limit- perhaps up to 200, 300, or even 400 mg% or more. That is the case for some diabetics. But as medical researchers have studied diabetes, they have discovered that damage to the beta cells and too little insulin are only part of the puzzle. Some people with very serious cases of diabetes have beta cells that look perfectly normal. Tests of their blood show that there is plenty of insulin there-more than enough, it would seem, to keep their sugar metabolism running smoothly. Yet they too suffer from hyperglycemia too much sugar in the blood.
Diabetes specialists now believe that a diabetic condition may arise in a number of ways. Damage to the beta cells, so that the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin, is one of them. High blood sugar could also result if the pancreas is producing normal amounts of insulin, but the body’s needs for the hormone become far higher than normal and the gland cannot keep up. This can often happen to people that over eat to an extreme degree, flooding their bodies with more carbohydrates than their system can handle. Or, if the thyroid gland goes out of order and becomes too active, it can increase the rate at which insulin is used up so that a relative insulin shortage results.
Diabetes specialists now believe that a diabetic condition may arise in a number of ways. Damage to the beta cells, so that the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin, is one of them. High blood sugar could also result if the pancreas is producing normal amounts of insulin, but the body’s needs for the hormone become far higher than normal and the gland cannot keep up. This can often happen to people that over eat to an extreme degree, flooding their bodies with more carbohydrates than their system can handle. Or, if the thyroid gland goes out of order and becomes too active, it can increase the rate at which insulin is used up so that a relative insulin shortage results.
Who gets Diabetes?
Who gets diabetes? Different forms of the condition can affect people of all ages, from tiny babies up to the very old. It strikes both sexes, but women are more likely to be diabetic than men. Women who have had a lot of children and those who have had unusually large babies (weighing ten pounds or more at birth) seem to face a special risk. People who have relatives with diabetes especially the maturity onset type, have a greater than average chance of developing diabetes themselves.
Diabetes affects all the people of the earth, with one exception: diabetes is extremely rare amoung Eskimos. The Pima and Papago Indians of the sothwestern United States have the highest diabetes rate of all-72 percent. Scientists point to such statistics as evidence for a hereditary susceptibility to diabetes, but some studies make it clear that heredity is not the whole story. The yemenite jews, for example, had an extremely low diabetes rate before they emigrated to Israel, but after years of living in their new homeland, their diabetes rate rose above that of the Israelis who had originally come from Europe. The explanation for the change is apparently one of life-style, and especially of diet. Yemenites in Israel eat a much richer diet than they used to, and use a great deal of table sugar, which was not a part of their diet before.
In general, any diet even a vegetarian diet that results in a gain in weight will increase one’s chances of developing diabetes. A diet that causes weight reduction will decrease one’s chance of deveoping diabetes or, if it is already present, will make it less severe. At least three-quarters of the people who develop diabetes in middle age are overweight. Yet not all or even most overweight people develop diabetes.
Diabetes affects all the people of the earth, with one exception: diabetes is extremely rare amoung Eskimos. The Pima and Papago Indians of the sothwestern United States have the highest diabetes rate of all-72 percent. Scientists point to such statistics as evidence for a hereditary susceptibility to diabetes, but some studies make it clear that heredity is not the whole story. The yemenite jews, for example, had an extremely low diabetes rate before they emigrated to Israel, but after years of living in their new homeland, their diabetes rate rose above that of the Israelis who had originally come from Europe. The explanation for the change is apparently one of life-style, and especially of diet. Yemenites in Israel eat a much richer diet than they used to, and use a great deal of table sugar, which was not a part of their diet before.
In general, any diet even a vegetarian diet that results in a gain in weight will increase one’s chances of developing diabetes. A diet that causes weight reduction will decrease one’s chance of deveoping diabetes or, if it is already present, will make it less severe. At least three-quarters of the people who develop diabetes in middle age are overweight. Yet not all or even most overweight people develop diabetes.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Diabetes in Youth
Diabetes in Youth:
Usually all a person with latent diabetes needs to do is eat a sensible diet, get plenty of exercise, and have regular checkups to make sure the condition has no progressed. These are good health rules for anyone.
In some cases, a diabetic condition may be quite serious by the time it is correctly diagnosed. Juvenile diabetes, which strikes mainly children, teenagers, and youn adults, may develop quite suddenly. The person may feel fine, and then, with hardly any warning, he or she falls so seriously ill that emergency hospitilization may be necessary.
Juvenile diabetics account for only about 20 percent of the total diabetic population. The far more common forms of maturity-onset diabetes usually strike people after the age of thirty-five or forty- and then strike mainly people who are overweight. The probability of getting diabetes roughly doubles with each decade of life, and with each 20 percent of excess weight.
Maturity-onset diabetes usually develops gradually with plenty of warning signals. But a person may overlook some of the symptoms of think they are due to something else. Reaching for that extra bottle of Coke, one might think. It certainly is hot today! A person with a sudden need to urinate more than usual might pass it off with the thought, It must have have been that soup I had for dinner, or I shouldn’t hve had that extra glass of milk before bedtime. Even in children, the early signs and symptoms of diabetes may be misleading. If a child suddenly begins wetting the bed, his or her parents are more likely to wonder about emotional problems or spank the child for disobedience than to suspect diabetes. But taken together, the symptoms of diabetes spell out a very clear warning message. Since each of us has about one chance in five of developing diabetes at some time in life, it is a message we should all learn to read.
Usually all a person with latent diabetes needs to do is eat a sensible diet, get plenty of exercise, and have regular checkups to make sure the condition has no progressed. These are good health rules for anyone.
In some cases, a diabetic condition may be quite serious by the time it is correctly diagnosed. Juvenile diabetes, which strikes mainly children, teenagers, and youn adults, may develop quite suddenly. The person may feel fine, and then, with hardly any warning, he or she falls so seriously ill that emergency hospitilization may be necessary.
Juvenile diabetics account for only about 20 percent of the total diabetic population. The far more common forms of maturity-onset diabetes usually strike people after the age of thirty-five or forty- and then strike mainly people who are overweight. The probability of getting diabetes roughly doubles with each decade of life, and with each 20 percent of excess weight.
Maturity-onset diabetes usually develops gradually with plenty of warning signals. But a person may overlook some of the symptoms of think they are due to something else. Reaching for that extra bottle of Coke, one might think. It certainly is hot today! A person with a sudden need to urinate more than usual might pass it off with the thought, It must have have been that soup I had for dinner, or I shouldn’t hve had that extra glass of milk before bedtime. Even in children, the early signs and symptoms of diabetes may be misleading. If a child suddenly begins wetting the bed, his or her parents are more likely to wonder about emotional problems or spank the child for disobedience than to suspect diabetes. But taken together, the symptoms of diabetes spell out a very clear warning message. Since each of us has about one chance in five of developing diabetes at some time in life, it is a message we should all learn to read.
Monday, December 8, 2008
What is Diabetes?
The name diabetes comes from a greek word meaning a siphon. Ancient greek physicians observed one of the most striking symptoms of the disease: people with uncontrolled diabetes usually have a constant, urgent thirst. Though they drink huge quantities of liquids, the fluid seems to run right through them, as water runs through a siphon, for they also have a continual need to urinate. Indeed, it often seems that more fluid comes out than went in. This happens with diabetes.
Later, a second part, mellitus, was added to the name of the disease. Mellitus, was added to the name of the disease. Mellitus comes from a latin word meaning “honey”, and this description was added because some physicians noticed that flies were attracted to honey. When other physicians tried tasting the urine, they discovered that it was sweet. Most people today just talk about “diabetes”, but physicians prefer to use its more precise, full name diabetes mellitus. In this way they avoid confusion with another, very much rarer disease called diabetes insipidus, in which great quanities of urine are also produced, but in which the urine does ot contain sugar.
Many people first discover they have diabetes when a routine medical checkup shows sugar in the blood or urine. They may hav such mild cases that no symptoms have shown up at all; all they have is that telltale trace of sugar. Perhaps their sugar tests are positive only at times of great stress, such as during an infection or during pregnancy, and afterward everything seems to go back to normal. Such cases are examples of latent diabetes.
Later, a second part, mellitus, was added to the name of the disease. Mellitus, was added to the name of the disease. Mellitus comes from a latin word meaning “honey”, and this description was added because some physicians noticed that flies were attracted to honey. When other physicians tried tasting the urine, they discovered that it was sweet. Most people today just talk about “diabetes”, but physicians prefer to use its more precise, full name diabetes mellitus. In this way they avoid confusion with another, very much rarer disease called diabetes insipidus, in which great quanities of urine are also produced, but in which the urine does ot contain sugar.
Many people first discover they have diabetes when a routine medical checkup shows sugar in the blood or urine. They may hav such mild cases that no symptoms have shown up at all; all they have is that telltale trace of sugar. Perhaps their sugar tests are positive only at times of great stress, such as during an infection or during pregnancy, and afterward everything seems to go back to normal. Such cases are examples of latent diabetes.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Diabetes About
Diabetes is the third leading killer in the United States. It is mainly a disease of the middle-aged and old, but it can also strike young adults, teenagers, and children. The earliest diabetes cases ever recorded appeared in a sister and brother. The girl first became diabetic at the age of four months, and later her baby brother was diagnosed with diabetes at nine days old. Diabetes kills thousands directly. But is is also responsible for the deaths of many more who seem to die of heart disease or some other cause.
Diabetics may suffer from many serious complications. High blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, and an inability to fight off infections bring misery to many diabetics and may shorten their lives. Altogether, diabetes and its complications account for about three hundred thousand deaths in the United States each year. About five million Americans are known to suffer from this disease, and medical specialists suspect that as many as five million more may have diabetes without knowing it. More than six hundred thousand new cases are diagnosed each year. The National Commission on Diabetes, which reported to congress in 1999, said that the disease costs the nation five and a half billion dollars each year in the expenses of caring for diabetics, and in their lost earnings.
Diabetics may suffer from many serious complications. High blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, and an inability to fight off infections bring misery to many diabetics and may shorten their lives. Altogether, diabetes and its complications account for about three hundred thousand deaths in the United States each year. About five million Americans are known to suffer from this disease, and medical specialists suspect that as many as five million more may have diabetes without knowing it. More than six hundred thousand new cases are diagnosed each year. The National Commission on Diabetes, which reported to congress in 1999, said that the disease costs the nation five and a half billion dollars each year in the expenses of caring for diabetics, and in their lost earnings.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Diabetes is not your fault
Diabetes is not your fault
You’ve just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. If you’re like most people, you’re probably in a state of shock. When you got diagnosed with diabetes. Your doctor probably told you a lot of things about diabetes diets and drugs and insulin and glucose and carbohydrates and blood tests and avoiding this and doing that, and you probably came out of the office with your head spinning because of what the doctor said about your diabetes.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Most people feel that way when they get news like this about diabetes. If no one in your family ever had diabetes, and especially if you’re thin and thought diabetes only happened to fat people, you’re probably especially puzzeled. What did I do wrong? Whey is this happening to me?
Sometimes a diagnosis comes like a thunderbolt on a sunny day. It can be had to hear this when it comes. Or maybe you were expecting a diagnosis someday. You’ve got relatives with diabetes: your grandmother had diabetes and died from gangrene in her foot. Your father got it when he was 65 and died from a heart attack a few years later. If you’re also over weigh, maybe you figured someday you’d get diabetes yourself. But you probably figured someday would be far in the future, when you sere old. Not today. Not now. I’m not ready yet. Whether you expected it or not, diabetes diagnosis is a shock.
You’ve just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. If you’re like most people, you’re probably in a state of shock. When you got diagnosed with diabetes. Your doctor probably told you a lot of things about diabetes diets and drugs and insulin and glucose and carbohydrates and blood tests and avoiding this and doing that, and you probably came out of the office with your head spinning because of what the doctor said about your diabetes.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Most people feel that way when they get news like this about diabetes. If no one in your family ever had diabetes, and especially if you’re thin and thought diabetes only happened to fat people, you’re probably especially puzzeled. What did I do wrong? Whey is this happening to me?
Sometimes a diagnosis comes like a thunderbolt on a sunny day. It can be had to hear this when it comes. Or maybe you were expecting a diagnosis someday. You’ve got relatives with diabetes: your grandmother had diabetes and died from gangrene in her foot. Your father got it when he was 65 and died from a heart attack a few years later. If you’re also over weigh, maybe you figured someday you’d get diabetes yourself. But you probably figured someday would be far in the future, when you sere old. Not today. Not now. I’m not ready yet. Whether you expected it or not, diabetes diagnosis is a shock.
Monday, December 1, 2008
My Story of Diabetes
There are a number of myths surrounding diet and diabetes, and much of what is still considered sensible nutritional diabetic advice for diabetes can over the long run be fatal. I know, because it almost cost me my life. I developed diabetes in 1991 at a very young age and for more than two decades I was an ordinary diabetic, dutifully following doctor’s orders and leading the most normal life I could, given the limitations of my diabetic disease.
Over the years, the complications from my diabetes became worse and worse, and like may diabetics in similar circumstances, I faced a very early death. I was still alive, but the quality of my life wasn’t particularly good. I have what is known as type 1 diabetes or insulin dependent, diabetes, which usually begins in childhood (it’s also called juvenile-onset diabetes). Type 1 diabetes must take daily insulin injections just to stay alive.
Years ago in the dark ages of diabetes treatment, most had to sterilize needles and glass syringes by boiling them every day, and use a test tube to test the urine for sugar. Many of the tools the diabetic can take for granted today were scarcely dreamed of back then-there was no such thing as a rapid, finger-stick blood sugar-measuring device, nor disposable insulin syringes. Still, even today parents of Type 1 diabetics have to live with the same fear my parents lived with. For any parent of a type 1 diabetic, this is a real and constant possibility.
Over the years, the complications from my diabetes became worse and worse, and like may diabetics in similar circumstances, I faced a very early death. I was still alive, but the quality of my life wasn’t particularly good. I have what is known as type 1 diabetes or insulin dependent, diabetes, which usually begins in childhood (it’s also called juvenile-onset diabetes). Type 1 diabetes must take daily insulin injections just to stay alive.
Years ago in the dark ages of diabetes treatment, most had to sterilize needles and glass syringes by boiling them every day, and use a test tube to test the urine for sugar. Many of the tools the diabetic can take for granted today were scarcely dreamed of back then-there was no such thing as a rapid, finger-stick blood sugar-measuring device, nor disposable insulin syringes. Still, even today parents of Type 1 diabetics have to live with the same fear my parents lived with. For any parent of a type 1 diabetic, this is a real and constant possibility.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)