Diabetic: What is diabetes and what helps?
Diabetic: What is diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus (also called "diabetes") is a chronic metabolic disease. All those affected share a sugar budget that has fallen out of balance. A key role plays here The hormone insulin, which is formed in the pancreas and traps sugar (glucose) into the body's cells. When production of the hormone or its uptake in the cells is disturbed, patients often need to inject insulin.
Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes
Although there are a total of three types of diabetes, however, the most important are type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes:
- The rarer Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune disease, the body no longer produces any insulin
- At the Type 2 diabetes, On the other hand, when about 95 percent of adult diabetics suffer, the cells usually do not respond adequately to insulin. The sugar stays in the blood and damages the vessel walls. Because the body also eliminates more water, it comes to dehydration, in extreme cases to a coma
How our lifestyle makes us diabetic
In the past people talked about geriatric diabetes? Today, children are already sick. Type 1 diabetes mainly affects children and adolescents Type 2 diabetes is more likely to affect adults, but more often also adolescents. The main cause is next to a genetic factor in type 2, especially in our modern way of life. The risk for both types is increased by:
- unhealthy diet
- little exercise
- too high body weight
"Fat is particularly dangerous on the stomach and in the liver," says Professor Karsten Müssig, head of the Clinical Study Center of the German Diabetes Center in Düsseldorf. "It produces messengers that disrupt the sugar and fat budgets."
Other causes of diabetes
But not only an unhealthy diet or obesity often cause the diagnosis Type-1 or Type-2. Also The following factors favor diabetes:
- stress
- depressions
- Smoke
- lack of sleep
What symptoms does diabetes have?
The disease is usually discovered by chance. Noticeable symptoms do not cause a high blood sugar level for a long time. Often the first signs are difficult to assign to patients:
- strong feeling of thirst
- weakness
- fatigue
- urinary Tract Infections
Often the high blood sugar level at the time of diagnosis has already caused damage: It damages blood vessels, nerves, organs, blocks the circulation in the feet, Small injuries quickly lead to larger infections.
The longer people suffer from diabetes, the more frequently it comes to other diseases: After 25 years, the retina of the eyes is damaged in 80 percent of those affected. The kidneys can fail, every third heart attack and every second fatal stroke is the result of diabetes. The risk of dementia and cancer is growing. On average, diabetes shortens life expectancy by ten years.
Diagnosis Diabetes: Which treatment is suitable for diabetes?
Both prevention and treatment of the metabolic disease rely on two factors: Diet and exercise. Large prevention studies show that the right lifestyle often has a positive impact on Type 1 and Type 2. "Even with already high blood sugar levels, the diabetes can be completely pushed back," expert Karsten Müssig knows.
Through exercise, glucose gets better into the muscle cells
Who weighs too much (body mass index over 30? In our BMI calculator you can check if you are affected), should lose five to ten percent of his body weight and eat the right thing. Because not only the amount of calories, certain foods also influence the blood sugar.
Treatment through sports
Sport should also integrate every diabetic into everyday life. Because through movement does glucose get into the muscle cells better? the dangerous liver fat disappears. Even moderate exercise has a protective effect, yet the more you move, the more the risk of diabetes decreases. Even after the onset of the disease, sport helps to save medication and insulin.
If the blood sugar can not be lowered permanently, physicians prescribe tablets. Nearly half of all type 2 diabetics swallow blood sugar. However, many of these remedies can lead to weight gain or dangerous hypoglycaemia. And unfortunately the therapy with antidiabetics is not a permanent solution. A fact that many underestimate at the beginning.
Diabetes is a life-long challenge
"You think: Then I'll just take a tablet, and that's enough then," says Bernhard Kulzer, psychologist at the Diabetes Center in Bad Mergentheim."But diabetes is a life-long challenge." When the pancreas completely loses the ability to produce insulin, the hormone must be externally supplied. It is always important to find the fine line between low blood sugar and too high.
Prevent and recognize diabetes
Proper test: The family doctor checks the blood sugar approximately at the health check 35+, pay the statutory health insurance every two years from the age of 35. A questionnaire to assess your own diabetes risk is provided by the German Institute for Nutrition Research.
Diabetic? Eat properly ...
Healthy diet prevents diabetes and helps to get the disease under control! You should keep these tips in mind if you are diabetic:
- The German Nutrition Society recommends a lot of fiber: 30 grams daily. Four slices of wholegrain bread contain 15 grams of fiber. In 100 grams of legumes stuck about seven grams
- We also recommend cereals and vegetables as well as vegetable oils instead of butter
- You should avoid red meat and foods that cause blood sugar to rise quickly, such as sweets and fruit juice. Sweetened soft drinks are particularly harmful, because they promote fatty degeneration of the liver
- A study by the German Institute for Nutrition Research also showed that people who drink more than four cups of coffee a day are less likely to develop diabetes
... and move properly
Also important is regular exercise. Ideal are 150 minutes of sports, which are spread over at least three days a week. The best is a mix of everyday movement and light endurance and strength training.
Videotipp: How to motivate you to sport!
