What people refer to as Diabetes or Diabities is actually the short form of Diabetes Mellitus, a disease that occurs when there is an elevation of sugar blood level (commonly referred to as blood glucose level). Glucose is a form of energy that the body needs for it to function normally.

The common sources of glucose in humans is through food
1. Starchy foods (carbohydrates) such as rice, bread, and noodles
2. Actual glucose whether in simple glucose form or complex forms (such as fruit sugars, milk sugars, honey,) which are broken down into simple sugars in the body.

Once glucose is absorbed in through the intestines, it is distributed throughout the whole body. At the cellular level, a hormone called insulin is responsible for the entry of glucose into the cells for usage.  It is at this level where we see certain situations whereby there is a resistance to the effect of insulin (insulin resistance) giving rise to an increased sugar blood level.  Another diabetes cause is where there is inadequate or no production of insulin by the cells responsible for this, known as the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.

Treatment of diabities in principle is quite simple

1. Start off on a diet for diabetes – with emphasis on healthy living and calorie control. Control of diabetes and diet are closely related.  Diabetic treatment with drugs but without dietary control is not ideal.

2. Diabetic Drugs. Two major varieties are often described - One type to stimulate the release of insulin from the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, the other type to promote the movement of sugar into the cells.

3. Insulin therapy.

4. Management of complications of diabities (both prevention of these complications and treatment of complications of diabetes if and when they occur), for example, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, nerve complications, skin problems, etc.  More about this in another article.

Diabities Complications - Early detection and management is essential.

Natural Diabetes Cures - The Bitter Melon

Diabetes (or Diabities) mellitus is a worldwide phenomenon and the numbers of sufferers are growing steadily. It is estimated that by 2010 there will be about 210 million diabetics in this world. The cost of treating this large number of diabetics throughout the world is horrendous. The cost of diabetic treatment not only takes into account the cost of diabetic drugs to treat diabities mellitus directly, but one has also to calculate the costs of treatment of diabetes complication such as kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes. Researchers throughout the world are busy trying to discover new treatments for diabetes which are more effective.

China, with 62.5 million diabetics (equal to that of the United States, Japan and Europe combined), and which faces a doubling of this population of diabetics by 2025, is sending its researchers to collaborate with Australian researchers in trying to find if there is a new treatment for the diabetic disease in the common bitter melon.
Researchers have discovered not one, but 4 different bioactive compounds, which are noted to reduce blood sugar when fed to mice. These compounds increase the uptake of glucose into cells, and thus cause the fall in blood sugar.

China has traditionally relied on herbs,vegetables or plant extracts to manage a host of illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and gout. Unfortunately there have been no internationally accepted scientific standards of research for most Chinese medicines, whose practitioners have generally relied on treatments and values passed down from generation to generation, and treatments that have been seen to be effective over the generations, but not scientifically analyzed.

This joint study on the benefits of the bitter melon marks one of the few scientific measures to extract, analyze and research active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine to produce an acceptable Western drug for international use.

Testing For Diabetes

It is far better to have the early symptoms of diabities when one is suffering from the disease than not to have any diabetic symptoms at all.  This is because if one does not have symptoms of diabetic disease, one does not feel unwell, there is no visit to the doctor to confirm or diagnose the disease, and one is at great risk of complications occurring due to untreated diabetes.

Symptoms that one should watch out for in early diabities:  sudden weight loss or gain, thirst, increased urination (you wake up several times nightly to pee), increased appetite, tiredness, increased frequency of fungus infections in the body, a reduction of healing time for wounds.

In late diabities, the symptoms will be those of complications – usually these are not reversible.  Thus one may present with poor vision, blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes.

Diagnosis is simple enough.  Go to your doctor after a 12 hour fast.  Get a fasting sugar blood level done on the spot in the clinic.  If the level is more than 5.5mmol per litre, you are diabetic.  Whether you have symptoms or not is immaterial.  Urine tests to diagnose diabetes are unreliable.

A lot can be said for routine testing for diabetes for the general public.  This will detect a great deal of previously undiagnosed diabetics, and early treatment of this serious disease helps a great deal in preventing, or at the very least delaying, the onset of diabetic complications.

1. You are overweight or obese. Look at the chart below for a guide to see where you are.
2. You have a parent or sibling (i.e. brother or sister) who has diabetes. The more members of your family have diabities, the higher your risk.
3. You lack physical activity or exercise
4. You have been known to have developed diabetes when you were pregnant, or if your baby was born heavy (more than 4kg)
5. You consume a diet high in fat or sugar.

If you have one risk factor or more, you should have a blood test for diabetes at least once every 6 months.

THE HEIGHT WEIGHT CHART

The Charts show the maximum weight recommended for a particular height. This maximum weight recommended is based on a maximum Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25.

For Those Who Favour The Metric System:

Diabetes and Hair Loss

The most common form of diabetes mellitus is Type 2 Diabetes (also known as diabetes two). This is also a very underdiagnosed condition, with millions of people unaware that they have diabities until it is seen on a routine sugar blood level test or until they get complications from this illness.

Diabetes occurs because the body either does not produce enough insulin it needs or the insulin does not reach the required cells. In diabetes, microcirculation is impaired – blood does not reach where it needs to go.

In order to understand how diabetes and hair loss are connected, it is essential have a quick understanding of the physiology of hair growth.

Hair growth goes through phases of growth (2 to 6 years), resting (2 to 3 months), and dropping for each hair follicle, with a new hair redeveloping in the follicle after the last hair has dropped. In diabetes, because of poor microcirculation to the hair root, the rate of redevelopment of the new hair is slowed.

There are a few other ways diabities is related to hair loss.

If the hair loss is related to fungal infection secondary to the diabetic condition, treatment of the fungus will stop further hair loss.
Stress caused by chronic diabities can lead to hair loss.
Similarly medications prescribed for diabetes two can also lead to hair loss.