Learning The Facts: How Do You Get Diabetes?

Are you experiencing frequent urination, extreme hunger, increased fatigue, excessive thirst, irritability, and unusual weight loss? If yes, then you maybe suffering from diabetes. This condition, characterized by uncontrollable blood sugar level, is life-threatening. Now, the question is how do you get diabetes?

Diabetes is of three types: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes. The first one, also known as the insulin-dependent diabetes, according to doctors, is also referred to as juvenile diabetes. Doctors dubbed this as such because most of the people who acquire this type are young, usually less than twenty years of age.

In such cases, insulin is not produced by the body. This is the reason why type 1 diabetics need to inject insulin on a daily basis. Symptoms of such diabetes also involve the existence of ketones in the urine of the patient. They say that you can get type 1 diabetes from oxygen free radicals. From exposure to different kinds of air pollution,  pancreatic cells which are responsible for producing insulin may be destroyed.

Another probable cause of diabetes is autoimmune response. Doctors say that the immune system, in some cases, destroys the insulin producing cells in our pancreas. How? Well, it has been thought for years that the problem could be genetic in nature. Diabetes can also be caused by chemicals and several drugs.

Type 1 diabetes is a lifetime dilemma, for which diabetes insulin replacement therapy is a must.

On the other hand, type 2 diabetes is the insulin resistant kind of diabetes. In such condition the body may not react properly to insulin. Type 2 diabetes can be caused by insulin resistance, genetics, and aging.

This diabetes is oftentimes known as the mature beginning of diabetes as compared to the juvenile diabetes, because it often occurs in adulthood.

In this case, the pancreas’ beta cells are able to create insulin although the body needs more insulin than what is produced. Thus, it is less efficient in changing glucose into glycogen and thus dropping the blood sugar level.

Insulin resistance means that diabetes may be caused by insufficient number of receptors cells. Genetics is also a common source of type 2 diabetes. If you have type 2 diabetes and you have an identical twin, there is a 60-to-70 per cent chance that your twin may develop diabetes too.

Also this kind of diabetes is predominant in cultures such as African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans, which possibly indicates that the problem is related to the genes.