Friday, September 23, 2011

Diabetes Lesson of the Day

I went to the doctor today and got my newest A1C - 6.2%!!!!  Woohoo!  My last one was over 11 about 3 months ago and I have been busting my butt to get it in control and it has worked!

I am on a journey to take better care of myself and I feel like the more I educate myself, the better I will do.  Not that anyone cares but I find the science behind Diabetes pretty fascinating.

I copied the following from Wikipedia as to how Type 1 Diabetics become Diabetic in the first place and some other interesting facts.

"Diabetes type 1 is caused by the destruction of enough beta cells to produce symptoms; these cells, which are found in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, produce and secrete insulin, the single hormone responsible for allowing glucose to enter from the blood into cells (in addition to the hormone amylin, another hormone required for glucose homeostasis). Hence, the phrase "curing diabetes type 1" means "causing a maintenance or restoration of the endogenous ability of the body to produce insulin in response to the level of blood glucose" and cooperative operation with counterregulatory hormones."

"Most people who develop type 1 are otherwise healthy.[5] Although the cause of type 1 diabetes is still not fully understood it is believed to be of immunological origin."

"Evidence so far indicates that the development of diabetes type I is induced by more or less a combination of genetic susceptibility, a diabetogenic trigger and exposure to a driving antigen.[8] Many risk factors have been suggested, and there is ongoing research into the influence of environmental factors. There is also research being conducted on individual factors, and whether some may be regarded as sufficient to cause the disease by themselves or only in addition to other risk factors."

"Type 1 diabetes is not currently preventable.[22] Still, promising therapies are emerging, and it has been suggested that, in the future, diabetes type 1 may be prevented at the latent autoimmune stage, probably by a combination therapy of several methods."

"Diabetes mellitus type 1 (Type 1 diabetes, IDDM, or, formerly, juvenile diabetes) is a form of diabetes mellitus that results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas.[2] The subsequent lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose. The classical symptoms are polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst), polyphagia (increased hunger), and weight loss.[3]"

I don't understand a lot of the terms myself but I have a basic understanding of how I got the disease and obviously how to treat it. 

And there you have it.  It's not preventable, it's treatable but not by diet alone and I will have to take insulin the rest of my life unless there is a cure.  Knowledge is power people!

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