Symptoms And Treatment Of Diabetic Screening Tests

Throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, between 2 and 3 of every 100 people have a

Matthews, David. Diabetes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Diabetes is a disease where the body is unable to produce or use insulin effectively. Insulin is needed for proper storage and use of carbohydrates. Without it, blood sugar levels can become too high or too low, resulting in a diabetic emergency. It affects about 7.8% of the population. The incidence of diabetes is known to increase with age. It’s the leading cause of end-stage renal disease in the US, and is the primary cause of blindness and foot and leg amputation. It is known to cause neuropathy in up to 70% of diabetic patients. Individuals with diabetes are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease. There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2.

The Characteristics of the diabetes are very distinctive and in some cases they are unnoticed. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), recommends individuals contact their physician if they

According to the American Diabetes Association, more Americans die each year from diabetes than from AIDS and breast cancer combined. As a result, researchers have extensively studied the causes, treatments, and interventions for diabetes. Despite efforts to ameliorate its effects, diabetes remains a prevalent danger in society. In 2014, 7% of U.S. adults were living with diagnosed diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). In Louisiana that number was even higher - 10.4% of adults have been diagnosed with diabetes. Breaking it down by age group, however, in Louisiana 3% of people aged 18 and 44 have been diagnosed, and 15.2% of people 45-64. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015a). Several studies have predicted future rates of diabetes both in the United States and worldwide - nearly all of these studies reached a similar conclusion: rates of diabetes will continue to rise (Boyle et al., 2001).

In 2002, among adults, there was an estimated 8.7% prevalence of diabetes. However, rather than there being a prevalence of the disease in the population as a whole, it was found more in specific population subgroups, such as the homeless population. There are certain risk factors these subgroups have that are either associated with diabetes or directly cause it. There is never a 100% correlation of development of diabetes

Uncontrolled diabetes can affect nearly every organ of the body; of which, heart disease and kidney failure are most commonly impacted. Known as diabetes mellitus, a collective term for various blood abnormalities, the term diabetes refers to either a scarcity of insulin in the body or the body’s inability to accept insulin. Though the symptoms of diabetes are manageable, many are unaware as to having it. According to the CDC report “2011 Diabetes Fact Sheet,” approximately 6 million people in the United States have undiagnosed diabetes. Undetected, diabetes can become deadly. In a recent World Health Organization report “Diabetes Action Now: An Initiative of the World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Federation,” it

Type 2 diabetes is a polygenic, complex disease that has become a worldwide health crisis. According to the World Health Organization over 422 million people in the world had this disease in 2014 (1), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that in the United States alone 29 million people had diabetes in 2014 (2). While the genetic predisposition contributing to the diabetes phenotype is not fully understood to date it still remains an area of active research. There are also various environmental factors that contribute stress to the glucose homeostasis system that provide a different approach in understanding this disease. Comprehending the pathogenesis of the disease has been an area of constant research for decades. There is hope that pharmaceutical developments can follow along and find medical treatments that can target the key pathogenic elements of this disease.

I have been naïve to an epidemic that has been plaguing America for quite some time now. It wasn’t talked about or taught much when I was younger. I thought that this disease was for the geriatric population. In 2012, 29.1 million Americans were diagnosed with diabetes. 8.1 million went undiagnosed. (diabetes.org) Diabetes is a dilemma and the statistics for this disease is rising steadily. Per the diabetes association there are 1.4 million of new cases of diabetes a year. Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the united states of America. Diabetes is not affecting only one group of people. Diabetes.org states that 208,000 Americans under the age of 20 have been diagnosed with diabetes. In 2014 I started a new job at a call center. Prior to this occupation I had never personally, that I knew of interacted closely with anyone suffering from this disease. I had never heard of the younger population developing this illness and I certainly never heard any first-hand accounts on how diabetes affected the body. I discovered just how prevalent diabetes were in young adults. I watched people between the ages of 20-27 be afflicted by this disease. They had to constantly watch their diet to ensure that their blood glucose wasn’t either too high or too low. I watched a 20-year-old female be in and out of the hospital because of this disease. I hope to inform this reader of the dangers of this disease and what to do to prevent it.

A. Bob concluded “Sometimes I feel like everything aggravates it”. He seemed to be moved emotionally, which was evident when he said: “It was kind of a devastating”. Not obeying a carbohydrate free diet, sedentary lifestyle, and not being compliant with medication regimen were the top things that could really exacerbate his diabetes. Additionally, stress can aggravate his condition, because it elevates the glucose level. When Bob is under a lot of stress, he is also less

Hiss, R. G., Armbuster, B. A., Gillard, M. A., & McClure, L. A. (2001). Comprehensive Evaluation of Community-Based Diabetic Patients. 694.

Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Despite advances in medical technology, treatments, and diagnoses, uncontrolled diabetes continues to rise in the United States (US) (American Diabetes Association [ADA], 2016). Between 2012-2014, 33.9 % of the US population were diagnosed with prediabetes (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). According to the ADA (2016) in 2010 18.8 million of the population was diagnosed with diabetes, 7 million were undiagnosed, compared to 2012 where the numbers continued to increase to 29.1 million. Out of the 29.1 million individuals affected with

From a historical standpoint, diabetes was not always considered to be a public health issue. As with many of our modern disease, there was little known about the mechanism of diabetes when it was first discovered. The Greek physician Aretaeus first coined the term “diabetes mellitus” to refer to the sweet taste of urine that diabetics were noted to have and it wasn’t actually until 1776 when scientists measured the glucose content in a diabetic’s urine and found it to be elevated (Polonsky, 2012). Ironically, Aretaeus also wrote, that “diabetes is a remarkable affliction, one not very common among men (Laios, Karamanou, Saridaki, Androutsos, 2012). Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, diabetes was still considered to be a rare condition and because so little was known, it was almost always fatal within a short time period.

In edition to acute complications of short term elevations of glucose, long term elevations of blood glucose lead to severe complications; microvascular damage resulting in heart attacks, strokes and gangrene, microvascular damage resulting in kidney damage and blindness due to retinopathy (peyrot 1999). For this reason the main goal of diabetes treatment is to maintain blood glucose as close to normal as possible. Medication is the theme of treating disease based on the biomedical outlook that disease is biological. Unfortunately, the biomedical model of medicine fails to take into consideration the social and psychological factors that play a role in the treatment of this illness. The biomedical approach fails to consider the psychologic and behavioral process involved in stress and coping with glucose control, as well as the interaction between biological and psychosocial factors and how this affects patient coherence with treatment. Studies have established that many people diagnosed with diabetes have difficulty in adapting to biomedical therapy; in order to improve health outcomes it is important to address the psychological and physical stresses of diabetes with specific adaptive and coping strategies (awah).

Diabetes is a major problem in our society today. Many people have heard about the disease; however, they do not know too much about its complications. Diabetes is a chronic, progressive and lifelong condition that affects the body’s ability to use the energy found in food (WebMD, 2016). Many new cases are confirmed every year and unfortunately, many go undiagnosed for years. Diabetes is a serious disease and need to be taking seriously. The disease can lead to many other health problems such as blindness, nerve damage and kidney diseases. The more the community understand and made aware of the seriousness of the disease, the better it can be control and or prevented.