What are the different types of diabetes?
Three main diseases that come under the bracket of diabetes.
Type 1
Type 1 diabetes occurs most commonly in children and young adults, although it can occur at any age. In type 1 diabetes, your body produces very little or no insulin. People with type 1 diabetes are insulin-dependent and need daily injections of insulin to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
Type 2
Type 2 diabetes is more common in adults, although increasing numbers of children are now developing type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to being overweight, a lack of exercise, and other health conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In type 2 diabetes, you may produce an insufficient level of insulin, or your body can be less sensitive to the insulin that it does produce. Type 2 diabetes may be controlled by dietary changes, exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight, however, this does not work for everyone, and most people will also need medication to help them to keep their blood sugar under control.
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is the occurrence of diabetes with pregnancy. It involves high blood sugar levels that last until shortly after the child is born. Gestational diabetes can cause complications for both the mother and child. The treatment for gestational diabetes varies from person to person. Some people can use diet and exercise to keep it under control, whereas others may need medications such as Metformin or Insulin.
What is prediabetes?
Prediabetes is similar to diabetes. While your blood sugar is raised in prediabetes, it is not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes to be made. Prediabetes often progresses into type 2 diabetes, although if appropriate changes are made, it is possible to prevent this development.
Can diabetes cause weight gain?
In type 2 diabetes, insulin levels can be high. Insulin has several roles, one of which is to help with the storage of fat and to reduce the fat used by the body. Therefore, it can be harder for people with diabetes to lose weight, and if the diet is not strictly controlled, people with diabetes are more likely to put on excess weight as well.
How diabetes affects the feet
Increased levels of glucose in the blood can cause damage to the nerves in the feet. This means that you may become less sensitive to pain. At first, this may appear to be a benefit, but it actually means that you can cause serious damage to your feet without being aware of it. Charcot foot disease occurs when people with diabetes break their feet without noticing it. And many people require amputation after a foot injury that went undetected.
In addition, diabetes can also reduce your circulation and cause damage to the blood vessels in your feet. This means that if you do get a foot injury, it will heal much more slowly than normal. Poor blood supply to the feet also increases the risk of foot ulcers and infection, which can lead to amputation.
To avoid foot problems associated with diabetes, it is important that you check your feet regularly - at least once a day. You should check for any cuts, bruises, swelling, or other injuries even if you do not feel that anything is wrong. Identifying a problem early makes it much more likely that you will recover quickly and avoid any serious complications.
How diabetes affects kidneys
Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease in the US. Over several years, the high glucose levels in your blood can damage the blood vessels in the kidneys. This damage affects how well the kidneys can function and leads to kidney disease. High blood pressure is also common among people with type 2 diabetes and can also lead to kidney damage.
To avoid doing damage to your kidneys, you should try to maintain your blood glucose levels within the target range, and you should take steps to prevent or reduce high blood pressure. A healthy diet, exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight should help you to avoid increased blood glucose or blood pressure.
When diabetes affects the eyes
The retina is the part of the eye that is sensitive to light. It contains delicate blood vessels, which, over time, can be damaged by elevated glucose levels in the blood, as found in diabetes. This can cause:
- Blurred vision
- Changes in your perception of color
- Dark patches in your visual field
- Blindness
This condition is known as diabetic retinopathy, and the changes usually occur in both eyes.
Risk factors for diabetic retinopathy include:
- High blood glucose levels
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Length of time you have had diabetes
- Pregnancy
- Smoking
- Being African-American, Hispanic or Native American
Some of these risk factors are beyond your control. However, healthy lifestyle choices, such as maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, exercising regularly, and eating a diabetes-friendly diet, can reduce your chances of diabetic retinopathy.
Why diabetes leads to amputation
Every day 230 Americans with diabetes have an amputation. This is usually the result of a diabetic foot ulcer. Diabetic foot ulcers are sores that fail to heal. High blood glucose levels over time, can damage the blood vessels and nerves in the feet. This means that if damage to the foot occurs, you are less likely to experience pain, and the healing process will be slower. This makes people more prone to infection and extensive tissue damage, so in some cases, amputation is the best course of treatment.
Maintaining your blood glucose targets, and living a healthy lifestyle reduces your chances of developing neuropathy and blood vessel damage. But it is still a good idea to check over your feet daily so that you will notice if you do start to lose sensation and if any injuries occur.
Why diabetes causes neuropathy
Neuropathy is a type of nerve damage affecting at least half of all people with diabetes. Over time, high blood glucose levels cause damage to the small blood vessels that supply your nerves. This means that the nerves don’t get enough nutrients and oxygen, and therefore, the nerves become damaged.
Your nerves are responsible for many different types of signaling inside your body. Peripheral neuropathy is common in people with diabetes and causes a numbness or tingling sensation in the feet. But autonomic neuropathy affects as many as 30% of people with diabetes. Autonomic neuropathy is where the nerves that communicate with your internal organs become damaged. You may not notice this yourself, but it can cause changes in your heart rate, blood pressure, and digestive system, among others.
Other types of neuropathy that you may experience are focal neuropathy and proximal neuropathy. Focal neuropathy is damage to a single nerve. This means that only a small area is affected. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a type of focal neuropathy. Proximal neuropathy is a rare and severe type of nerve damage that occurs around your hip, buttock, and thigh. Proximal neuropathy can be very painful and can also cause weakness in the legs and weight loss.
Why diabetes causes hypertension (high blood pressure)
Diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension) often co-exist. Many people have hypertension before they are diagnosed with diabetes. This is because many of the health and lifestyle factors that predispose someone to high blood pressure (obesity, lack of exercise, poor diet) are also risk factors for type 2 diabetes. However, diabetes can also increase your chances of developing high blood pressure. This is because elevated glucose levels can, over time, cause damage to the nervous system. The nervous system is responsible for our sense of touch and pain, but it also plays a role in processes such as maintaining blood pressure and heart rate (this is known as the autonomic nervous system). When the nerves in the autonomic nervous system become damaged (autonomic neuropathy),
Diabetic yeast infections
Yeast infections are caused by an overgrowth of candida albicans - a fungus naturally found on the body. Candida is part of the skin’s natural microbiome, but if it proliferates too much, it can cause a yeast infection and uncomfortable symptoms such as itching, pain, and a soft-cheese-like discharge.
High blood sugar is one of several factors that can make the skin more ‘friendly’ to candida, allowing it to grow out of control. Therefore, diabetes can increase the chances of developing yeast infections. Maintaining appropriate blood glucose levels and avoiding other risk factors for yeast infections, such as smoking and obesity, can reduce the chances of recurrent diabetic yeast infections.
Diabetes and depression
Diabetes can be a difficult condition to manage. It involves closely monitoring your diet and making significant lifestyle changes. Therefore, depression is common among people with diabetes. In addition, diabetes can lead to several other health conditions, which can further increase your risk of depression.
There are several treatment options available for people with diabetes and depression.
- Diabetes self-management programs (DSMPs) are designed to help you manage your diabetes symptoms as well as any psychological challenges that you may face. They can help you to make lifestyle changes that can improve your diabetes, as well as your mental health.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy therapy that helps you to modify your behaviors and thought process to improve your mental health. Many people with diabetes report improved psychological wellbeing through CBT, which leads to improved management of diabetes.
- Various medications are available to help with depression. You may need to try a few different options before finding the one that works best for you, but many people find these to be effective, especially when combined with other lifestyle changes.
- Lifestyle changes such as increased exercise and a healthy diet can improve mental health.
With all these options available, if you think you have both diabetes and depression, you should speak to a doctor about what options are available and which solutions may be most effective in your situation.
You are also more likely to develop diabetes if you have depression. It is thought that this is because depression can lead you to live a less healthy lifestyle, such as smoking, lack of exercise, weight gain, and an unhealthy diet. If you feel that you may have depression, you should speak to your doctor or a psychiatrist who can help you to deal with your problems and reduce the impact on your physical health.
What is like diabetes but not diabetes?
Some of the symptoms of diabetes, such as fatigue, shaking, drowsiness, and confusion, can be found in several other conditions. This leads many people to wonder if they have diabetes or something else entirely. If you have any of the diabetes symptoms, it is a good idea to go to your doctor for a blood test to confirm whether you have diabetes. One of the things that may be picked up instead is prediabetes. Prediabetes is a condition in which you do have raised blood sugar levels, but they are not high enough to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes. Unless appropriate lifestyle changes are made, prediabetes does often develop into type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes and pancreatic cancer
Diabetes is a symptom of pancreatic cancer, which can be worrying for many people who know or suspect that they may have diabetes. However, diabetes is far more common than pancreatic cancer affecting 10.5% of the US population, compared to only 57,600 people in the US (0.017%) who will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. In addition, the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are far more severe than those of diabetes, including:
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes caused by liver failure)
- Abdominal pain, caused by the tumor putting pressure on surrounding organs
- Weight loss and reduced appetite
- Nausea and vomiting (caused by the tumor putting pressure on the stomach)
- Gallbladder or liver enlargement
- Blood clots
- Therefore, you should be reassured that having symptoms of diabetes does not mean that you have pancreatic cancer. But if you are concerned, you should speak to your doctor who can examine you and explain things in more detail.