The first symptoms of diabetes

1 and type 2 diabetes

How old are you?

The first question that doctors now ask patients: "How old are you?» If 40 or more, the person automatically falls into the risk group for type 2 diabetes.

In our country, the average life expectancy, unfortunately, is not so high, but in those countries where this indicator is more than 80 years old, a clear trend can be seen: with each year of life, the probability of diabetes increases. And if today in developed countries 5-7% of the population suffers from diabetes, in the group of 70-80-year-olds, this figure reaches 17 %.

50-60 years is the most "fertile" period for the onset of diabetes.

If you are over 40 years old, you should definitely pay attention to the following points: whether you are overweight or obese (if you are, you need to regularly take blood sugar tests).

An important indicator is whether a person often feels thirsty, how much water they consume and how much they excrete, and how many times they get up to use the toilet during the night.

Disturbing symptoms may be the presence of boils, pustules on the body, itching-especially in the perineum (urine containing glucose is a favorable environment for the reproduction of microbes).

Causes of type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Worldwide, the incidence of diabetes mellitus (primarily type 2 diabetes) is increasing. Type 2 diabetes is significantly more common than type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus is a common name for two essentially different diseases. They flow the same way, but their nature is different. Type 1 diabetes, which is much less common – is diabetes caused by damage to the pancreas and its complete "death", the termination of its function. This is most often due to autoimmune damage to the pancreas, when the body's immune system mistakenly starts a "war" against its own organ, in this case, against the pancreas.

Such a process can also begin as a result of injuries, ischemic injuries, severe inflammatory changes, pancreatitis, occurring with a massive breakdown of pancreatic cells. That's when type 1 diabetes begins. This is an acute, often autoimmune disease that occurs as a response to some "provocation".

With type 2 diabetes, the situation is completely different. This is diabetes, which is primarily inherited. Moreover, like all other hereditary diseases, the longer the "history of inheritance", the earlier the disease manifests itself and the more severe it is in the end, if you do not deal with it.

Type 1 diabetes usually appears in childhood or at a young age-up to 30 years. This is due to a decrease in the number of beta cells-structures of the pancreas responsible for insulin secretion. Massive destruction of the endocrine cells of the pancreas leads to a critical decrease in the level of insulin in the blood.

Such cell death can be associated with viral infections, cancer, pancreatitis, and toxic pancreatic lesions, but most often this disease is genetically determined and caused by defects in a number of genes.

The human body has huge compensatory capabilities, but if diabetes has appeared, the regression (decrease in the number of beta cells) continues. The clinical symptoms of type 1 diabetes differ from those of type 2 diabetes. If there is a rapid weight loss, malaise and General weakness appear, and the patient does not consult a doctor and does not receive proper treatment, ketoacidosis occurs. This is due to the high concentration of glucose and ketone bodies in the blood. Urine gets an unpleasant smell of soaked apples, acetone. This condition is already life-threatening. If you do not help such a patient, a diabetic ketoacidotic coma develops.

Type 1 diabetes develops quickly: if in the case of type 2 diabetes, you can wait from the first symptoms to see a doctor, then ketoacidosis often develops rapidly and sometimes leads to a diabetic coma, loss of consciousness. This is a very terrible complication of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes – what is its insidiousness?

Type 2 diabetes is a very insidious disease. It comes imperceptibly, gradually: sometimes patients for 2-3 years have the entire bouquet of alarming symptoms, however, these signs are not too clearly expressed. They only have a very small impact on a person's performance, on their attitude to life. That is, a person always finds some explanation for his abnormal condition.