2023-08-08 13:01:07
HomeLifeHealth
Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are probably familiar to many people. But there are other forms of diabetes.
It doesn’t matter whether you have diabetes type 1 or 2*: both metabolic disorders have the same consequences. The sugar metabolism does not function normally, which drives up the blood sugar level permanently. The reasons for this: The body cannot produce the hormone insulin in sufficient quantities (type 1 diabetes, often congenital) or can no longer utilize it well (type 2 diabetes). Type 2 diabetes, which is usually triggered by an unhealthy lifestyle, is far more common. Little exercise and an unbalanced diet are among the greatest risk factors.
According to the German Diabetes Aid, 95 percent of the approximately eight million diabetes patients in Germany currently have type 2 diabetes. The starting point for type 2 diabetes is the insulin resistance. As a result, the blood sugar level rises because the cells can absorb less sugar from food.
Diabetes always needs to be treated because persistently high blood sugar levels damage blood vessels, which can lead to sensory disturbances such as tingling in the feet. Organs such as the kidneys are also damaged. In the worst case, patients fall into a diabetic coma – with life-threatening consequences.
Anyone who eats a very unbalanced diet and rarely moves promotes the development of diabetes. But there are other reasons too. © Gemma Ferrando via www.imago-images.de
Type 3 and 4 diabetes: When diseases and pregnancy make you diabetic
When doctors speak of type 3 diabetes, it is a rare form of diabetes that cannot be assigned to type 1 or 2. The group of diabetes type 3 includes very different diseases in which a diabetic metabolic situation occurs, as the German Diabetes Aid informs. These include, for example, a disease of the pancreas, Cushing’s syndrome or inherited genetic defects in the beta cells. Corticoid therapy can also result in type 3 diabetes. In order to raise the blood sugar level back to a normal level, the treatment of the causative disease is the priority in type 3 diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is also known as type 4 diabetes or gestational diabetes (GDM). According to the German Diabetes Aid, at least 45,000 women develop it every year. “GDM doesn’t cause any complaints, so it’s easy to overlook“, says Ute Schäfer-Graf, head of the Berlin Diabetes Center for pregnant women at the St. Joseph Hospital in Berlin-Tempelhof, in a press release from the German Diabetes Aid. Undetected and therefore untreated, GDM is five times more likely to cause birth problems than in unaffected mothers. As a result of the pregnant woman’s high glucose levels, the unborn child produces more insulin. The hormone also promotes growth. “Therefore, affected babies often have a high birth weight and have to be born by caesarean section,” explains Professor Schäfer-Graf. “In addition, they have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as adults.” Lifestyle measures such as more exercise and a change in diet are often sufficient to lower the glucose levels of affected women, it is said. (jg) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Continue reading: Diabetes medication overview: Why you should only use metformin as a last resort
Why we lose weight as we age and what we can do
View photo gallery
1691500400
#Type #type #diabetes #treatment #definition