Diabetes Mellitus: Causes, Effects and Treatment An estimated twenty million people in the US alone suffered from diabetes in 2005.1 As though that weren’t concerning enough, almost one-third of the diabetics in the US today have not been diagnosed as diabetics.2 Diabetes is an extremely serious condition and one with potentially astronomical consequences. Diabetes is characterized not just by physical impacts but also by mental, psychological and social impacts. Given the severity of diabetic complications, failure to adequately treat diabetes could result in severe health impacts or even death. Indeed, the American Diabetes Association lists diabetes as the fifth deadliest disease in the US3. With treatment, however, even the most serious forms of diabetes can often be kept in check. Diabetes mellitus is a broad epidemiological classification of a condition characterized by either the metabolic inability to produce insulin or the metabolic resistance to insulin. This classification encompasses four distinct epidemiological types of diabetes. These are: 1. type 1 diabetes, 2. type 2 diabetes, 3. gestational diabetes, and 4. other types of diabetes resulting from genetic beta-cell defects in either function or insulin action, or pancreatic disease, or drugs or chemicals.4 Each of these subcategories of diabetes mellitus has distinct physiological impacts and treatments. Diabetes is caused by imbalances in glucose levels. Rapid fluctuations of glucose levels can result in either hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, extremely low or extremely high levels of
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Anjali D.,Deshpande, Marcie Harris-Hayes, and Mario Schootman. "Epidemiology of diabetes and diabetes-related complications.(Diabetes Special Issue)(Clinical report)." Physical Therapy 88.11 (Nov 2008): 1254(11). 2 Anjali D.,Deshpande, Marcie Harris-Hayes, and Mario Schootman. "Epidemiology of diabetes and diabetes-related complications.(Diabetes Special Issue)(Clinical report)." Physical Therapy 88.11 (Nov 2008): 1254(11). 3 American Diabetes Association. “Native Americans and Diabetes.” Retrieved Dec 10, 2008 from: http://www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/nativeamericans.jsp 4 Anjali D.,Deshpande, Marcie Harris-Hayes, and Mario Schootman. "Epidemiology of diabetes and diabetes-related complications.(Diabetes Special Issue)(Clinical report)." Physical Therapy 88.11 (Nov 2008): 1254(11).
blood glucose. Hypoglycemia is technically defined as a blood sugar level of 70 mg/dl.5 Hyperglycemia, in contrast, results with