Diabetes mellitus is growing rapidly all over the world, and it does not matter that scientists do not know all the reasons why this disease can occur. In this state, a person can only pay attention to his body.
And let the symptoms of other diseases be mistaken for manifestations of diabetes - if there is any suspicion, you should immediately seek clarification from a doctor (especially since there is also diabetes without symptoms).
It is customary to qualify diabetes mellitus as an endocrinological pathology with a severe clinical picture. In this case, often the early stages of the disease are asymptomatic or characterized by polymorphism of manifestations. However, there are certain pathological signs, which you can learn from the material below.
Causes of diabetes
Although there are many causes for this disease, the main causes are two:
- sugar (in particular) and food (in general);
- psychological readiness for damage to the body (stress conditions).
Despite the search for new treatments for diabetes, sucrose continues to take over the world in parallel. Sugar is given the most exotic and seductive appearance - not even a ketchup recipe is complete without the addition of sugar, not to mention unthinking wedding cakes and innocent-looking children's breakfasts.
Reference. Most fruits and natural fruits do not contain sucrose - they are produced from plant juices that are not eaten raw by humans. Therefore, it can be attributed to artificially obtained chemical compounds.
Food in general has also become a threat to health. One never eats so much and often. The obsessive bid to eat has turned him into a creature that constantly chews - and the burden on the pancreas, which has its own rhythm of life, becomes constant and threatening.
The alcohol formulation serves as a direct cause of glandular tissue necrosis and as a means of inducing organ ischemia.
This also applies to:
- smoking tobacco;
- drug use;
- excessive addiction to drugs: sleeping pills, sedatives, painkillers.
The second leading cause of diabetes is stress. And one of the stress factors is a constant reminder of the threat of diabetes, chasing a person everywhere. Afraid of such a prospect, the mind creates a subconscious precondition for disease.
Another factor in the spread of diabetes around the world exists due to advances in medicine. If 100-150 years ago, diabetics rarely had offspring, now the condition of hereditary diseases has increased hundreds of times, 100% of diabetics give birth to the same diabetic with a high probability.
The world has become a more comfortable shelter for diabetes because of physical inactivity with its inevitable companions: obesity, constipation, osteoporosis, microthrombi and metabolic disorders in all body systems, which cause environmental pollution (another reason for diabetes) to appear. like an innocent baby.
Classification of diseases
According to etiological (causal) classification, diabetes is distinguished:
- Type I (also called insulin-dependent, or "juvenile");
- Type II (which is insulin-free);
- pregnancy (due to pregnancy);
- arise due to other plans (due to previous infections, use of drugs or otherwise).
There is a division of the disease into cases with varying degrees of severity:
- light;
- simple;
- bad
According to the state of carbohydrate metabolism, diabetes can:
- compensated;
- subcompensated;
- decompensated.
Classification with the presence of complications includes the consequences of diabetes in the form of:
- micro or macroangiopathy (vascular lesions);
- neuropathy (damage to nerve tissue and its structure);
- retinopathy (damage to the organ of vision);
- nephropathy (kidney pathology);
- diabetic foot (separately isolated syndrome that describes the pathology of blood vessels and other structures with the involvement of the lower part of the foot).
Clinical diagnosis, organized based on the systematic above, provides a brief and broad overview of the patient's condition already at the first reading. It is enough for a person without special education to know about the existence of 2 types and 3 degrees of severity of the disease.
The first symptoms of the disease
As is clear from the classic literal translation of the name of the disease from Latin (honey diabetes), diabetes mellitus has two main characteristics:
- sweet taste of urine;
- frequent and abundant urination.
Doctors of the Middle Ages only suspected an excess of natural grape sugar in the blood - glucose, but they could confirm the diagnosis in another way - by tasting the patient's urine. Because due to disturbances in the kidney filtration process, glucose in diabetes enters the urine (normally it should not be there). Later, the assumption of the father of medicine was brilliantly confirmed - this disease also includes hyperglycemia (excess amount of glucose in the blood).
It is possible to be guided by this canon even in modern times, remembering, however, that it is precisely the presence of the two signs that testify in favor of diabetes: sugar and abundant urine. For diabetes can also be insipidus, but this is a completely different disease, its development is caused by completely different reasons.
With unmanifest (practically asymptomatic) or sluggish diabetes, the first signs may be secondary symptoms (not typical for this particular pathology) in the form of:
- visual impairment;
- Headache;
- inappropriate muscle weakness;
- dryness in the oral cavity;
- itching involving the skin and mucous membranes (especially often in the intimate area);
- skin lesions that are difficult to heal;
- A distinct smell of acetone comes from the urine.
Their presence does not allow diagnosing type I or II of the disease - only a pathological study by a specialist doctor, plus a blood composition study in combination with other tests, can distinguish between them.
Special features
They are more characteristic of type I, they approach suddenly and strongly, therefore the patient can report not only the year of their appearance, but also the month (up to the week associated with a certain event).
This includes having:
- polyuria (abundant and frequent urination);
- polydipsia (unquenchable thirst);
- polyphagia ("wolf's appetite" that does not bring satiety);
- significant weight loss (and gain).
It should be noted that this is not about a temporary residence from any difficult period of life, after which everything returns to normal, but about a stable state of the body for several weeks and months.
In addition to glucose, with the advantage of being not a nutrient, but a compound that breaks the established metabolism and disrupts the natural biochemical balance in the body, substances with a toxic effect on the structure accumulate in it:
- nervous tissue;
- heart;
- kidney;
- heart;
- ship.
The most famous is acetone, which is well known in the brain for the state of intoxication that occurs after drinking alcoholic beverages. The accumulation of acetone and other metabolic products that are not fully oxidized leads to the failure of all body systems, especially the nervous and vascular systems, which provide transport and communication in the body.
In critical cases (with a sudden increase or decrease in blood glucose), diabetes can lead to the onset of coma, when circulatory disorders in the brain can cause the death of the patient.
In what case is it impossible to postpone a visit to the doctor?
The answer to this question will become clear after some explanation.
Type I diabetes is the result of insufficient insulin production, which limits blood glucose levels. In the type II variant, insulin is sufficient, but due to the characteristics of the body, its ability to control blood sugar is limited - insulin alone cannot reduce its content. As a result of excess glucose, it becomes a toxin that disrupts the normal course of all chemical reactions in the body, not only regarding carbohydrate metabolism.
The level of tissue metabolism disorders and the body's ability to compensate for these disorders determine the severity of diabetes.
With a mild course, the glucose level does not exceed the threshold of 8 units (mmol / l), its daily fluctuations are not significant.
The mild form is characterized by an increase in glucose up to 14 units with episodes of ketosis-ketoacidosis (excess acetone and similar substances in the blood), which is full of vascular disorders.
In severe cases, the level of glucose exceeds 14 units, its fluctuations during the day are significant - there is a serious problem with the blood supply to the tissues, while a disturbance in the nutrition of the brain can trigger a coma.
From here follow the sensations experienced by the patient, either having the character of minor signs, or typical manifestations of diabetes:
- polyuria (diabetes) with diabetes;
- polydipsia (the appearance of thirst, not eliminated even with frequent and abundant drinking);
- polyphagy (unconquerable gluttony);
- weight loss without motivation.
The presence of this syndrome (sign complex) is a good reason to visit an endocrinologist or, in the absence of this specialist, a therapist who will conduct the necessary preliminary studies.
The reason for being the object of close study can also be nervous system disorders caused by diabetes, detected by neuropathologists, in an unexplained form:
- dizziness;
- nausea;
- noise and ringing in the ears;
- vomiting;
- temporary sensory or movement disturbances;
- problems with perception and memory.
Small signs of diabetic vascular disease, which are shown by eye symptoms, can also be deviations from the function of the organ of vision in the form of:
- reduce its severity;
- drying of the cornea (feeling like dryness, "sand", itching or pain in the eye);
- blur the outline of the object;
- ripples and flies in the eyes;
- periodic occurrence of blind spots and loss of the entire field of vision;
- inexplicable "darkness" in the eyes.
The presence of diabetic vascular disease can cause the main attraction to doctors of other profiles:
- with trophic skin disorders (formation of ulcers on the lower part of the legs) - to the surgeon;
- with skin lesions that do not heal - to a dermatologist;
- with bleeding, non-healing wounds in the mouth or the appearance of sores - to the dentist.
The reason for immediate medical help should be any case of sudden loss of consciousness, the onset of conditions characterized as "tongue loss", "numb arms, legs", dizziness, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, although these symptoms may be explained by alcohol intoxication ordrugs or take stable tablets prescribed by a doctor.