Everybody in this world has a story to tell with the subject of Diabetes in one way or the other. We all somehow have been intertwined into this bitter sweet symphony of life called Diabetes whether its in a childhood form or adult form. Some more unlucky of us have lost the dearest parts of our life to it and some are awaiting to face that dreadful moment. I have unfortunately lived through it recently. I am about to share with you through this new series on Diabetes the various obvious things to prevent if A) you or your dear one is diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) or B) you would want to prevent lifestyle developed DM.
Diabetes Mellitus or DM as I would refer to it often ahead is an adult onset metabolic disorder of the hormone insulin secreted by the endocrine cells of the pancreas. Insulin to put it in simplest of metaphorical terms acts as a visa for every glucose molecule in our blood to enter any cell. The passport being the sodium molecule which acts as active transporter of the glucose into the cells of the body from the blood stream. To understand how it all occurs or even how it all goes wrong in the case of DM imagine our body cells to be a foreign land and the blood stream to be the airports, glucose molecules as people and sodium channels being airplanes while sodium being the passport carried while boarding the plane, insulin is the visa that needs to be validated before entering the airplane to go abroad. Now imagine what happens if you have the passport but don't get your visa validated at the immigration desk? What happens if there is no visa validation at all for anybody at the airports across the country? What happens to the airports' premises if people are stamping over the other but get no visa to board the plane? Can you see the chaos at all airports bursting out at the seams with people? This is what happens outside every cell in our body when there is lack of insulin secreted or too inadequate to help glucose enter the cell. The glucose molecules start accumulating outside in the blood stream unable to enter the cells to generate energy and hence fuel for the body. This increases the viscosity of the blood and hence the blood pressure over a period of time. Due to the increased pressure there is an increased demand on the heart. Our body is engineered to absorb as much stress to a certain extent without disturbing the outside environment of the body and it is this ability of the body that prevents the diagnosis of DM too soon untill of course the body starts letting out symptoms.
DM like AIDS is not the threatening reason people die but because these disorders easily bring in the diseases that cause death. It is never the immediate cause of death but it sure is the easiest way to introduce it to the body. DM is known to have secondary complications the primary being ophthalmic, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, skin disease, diabetic foot. All these secondary to DM ailments are the reason for death due to DM not DM alone. Its only when the body goes into ketoacidosis due to extreme acidity of the blood raised by the incomplete breakdown of fat instead of glucose in the body, does it lead to death.
Diabetes alone can be easily kept under control with lifestyle adaptation however it is the general myth that it can be ridden out of our body that needs to be clarified. Insulin secretion stops from pancreas naturally or due to obesity where the fat deposition exceeds on the cells making them resistant to insulin uptake. If insulin secretion stops or is inadequate it will result into diabetes mellitus and that is permanent. However, if that is the diagnosis it should not be necessarily taken as if you were handed your death certificate but instead as a chance to survive keeping your life as normal as it were with some mandatory changes in lifestyle. In the next part I shall reveal more obvious truths about DM and busts some myths too.
Wish you wellness,
Neha Wasnik
R.D
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