Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder,characterized by long-term hyperglycemia. The blood sugar level gets too high that the kidney starts to spill sugar into the urine.,This is the so-called diabetes mellitus.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), it is estimated about 537 million adults (20-79 years old) had diabetes by 2021, and will rise to 700~800 million by 2045, and almost 240 million adults with diabetes are currently undiagnosed.
Diabetics usually have the symptoms including eating more, drinking more, frequent urination but weight loss. Poorly controlled diabetes can often lead to serious complications, such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and diabetic foot. Diabetes complications are often irreversible and, over time, can cause body’s organs damaged or death . In fact, diabetes is currently one of the major causes of amputation, vision loss and dialysis.
Diabetes can be classified into type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.
- Type 1 diabetes: related to heredity and genes, mostly begins in childhood or adolescence, mainly due to the body's immune system destroying insulin-producing (islet) cells in the pancreas, so that insulin can not be produced normally and eventually leads to diabetes.
- Type 2 diabetes: It is a more common type of diabetes, which is currently believed to be related to family inheritance, lifestyle and obesity, among which visceral obesity is a higher risk group. The cause of type 2 diabetes is mainly the insulin resistance of cells , when insulin secretion is decreased gradually, a large amount of glucose will remain in the blood, causing high blood sugar and resulting in diabetes.
- Gestational diabetes: Mainly caused by high blood sugar during pregnancy and may cause other complications for mother and baby. Gestational diabetes usually recover after pregnancy, but affected women and their children are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future.
Diagnostic criteria for diabetes include the following 4 items, and conformity of any of them in non-pregnant conditions is diagnosed diabetes (the first three items should be repeated confirmatory more than twice)
- Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) ≧ 6.5%
- Fasting plasma glucose ≧ 126 mg/dL
- Two hours after an oral glucose tolerance test for plasma glucose ≧ 200 mg/dL
- Typical symptoms of hyperglycemia and random plasma glucose ≧ 200 mg/dL
Diabetes is a complex chronic disease that requires comprehensive compliance such as diet, exercise, medication, and blood glucose monitoring, together with regular treatment, follow-up and a good lifestyle through a professional medical team to delay and avoid complications.
