Diabetes is a disease caused by a failure of the biological mechanisms regulating blood sugar, because of inadequate production of insulin (hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food energy) by the pancreas. The disease is characterized by a significant increase in blood sugar. Three main types of diabetes are Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is characterized by a loss of production of insulin by cells of the pancreas (beta cells or cells of Langerhans. The causes of this loss of insulin production are still unknown. Diabetes type 1 may have a impact on children or adults, but most times, it starts from a few months of life and about 35 years. The body of a diabetic patient rejects, the formation of antibodies, cells that are capable to produce insulin. The symptoms are discomfort and frequent urination, which can lead to dehydration and weight loss. Type 1 diabetes accounts for 10% of patients with diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes or diabetes mellitus type 2 is a form of diabetes characterized by high levels of sugar in the blood. This type of diabetes results from a lack of insulin secretion and its ineffectiveness in maintaining blood sugar within a normal level. In type 2 diabetes may be caused by genetic factors or unhealthy lifestyle, lack of exercise, obesity, alcohol abuse and high-fat. However, the causes of diabetes in the vast majority of cases have not yet logical explanation.

Gestational Diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs in pregnant women. No cause has been identified, but it is thought that during pregnancy, the body of the mother produces hormones to support the fetus as it develops. In some women, these hormones directed against their bodies, making them less able to make insulin needed to get energy from body cells.

Without this insulin, the level of sugar in the mother’s blood starts to develop, which can harm the mother and fetus, if left untreated. Gestational diabetes occurs in about 7 percent of all pregnancies. Unlike type 1 and type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes is often treated.

Some general signs of type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes

The symptoms of diabetes May occur in several ways: fatigue, difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, intense thirst, frequent urination, insatiable hunger, weight loss, muscle weakness. Some or all of these symptoms are present in patients with diabetes early in the disease. However, some diabetics have few symptoms. The disease is then detected in a sample of blood.

Diabetes natural remedies

Natural Remedies have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years to support the health of the pancreas, the endocrine system and all its functions. In more recent times, research has confirmed the importance of natural medicines in the treatment of diabetes. There are now many published clinical studies demonstrating the ability of a range of herbs to support the endocrine system and pancreatic health and maintaining normal blood sugar.

Diabetes is a disease that varies the way your body utilize sugar. The food you eat develops to sugar and this sugar travels through the blood to all parts of the body. Generally, insulin assists get sugar from the blood to the body’s cells, where it is used for energy or power in the body. When you have diabetes, your body has trouble making and/or reacts to insulin. So your body does not get the fuel it desires. And your blood sugar goes too high.

Types of Diabetes:

Type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) occurs when the pancreas becomes unsuccessful to make sufficient insulin. It usually occurs in childhood or adolescence but can expand at any age. These patients need insulin each day.

Type 2 or non-insulin dependant diabetes mellitus occurs when body cells develop into resistant to insulin. This is more general among adults, particularly those who are overweight and over age 40. These people are able to manage their blood sugar levels through weight control, regular exercise and a well-balanced diet. Some people need oral medications or insulin injection to lower blood sugar.

Symptoms of Diabetes

Early Symptoms

Increased thirst, increased urination, increased appetite are the initial signs.

In type I weight loss is seen and in type II obesity is seen.

Additional Symptoms

Other possible symptoms are blurred vision, skin irritation or infection, weakness or loss of strength, and decreased healing capability.

Clinical lab test information reveal glycosuria (sugar in urine), hyperglycaemia, abnormal glucose tolerance tests.

If diabetes is not identified at the right time symptoms like fluid and electrolyte imbalance, acidosis, coma is seen.

Causes of Diabetes

Cause for IDDM

IDDM mostly outcome from a virally initiated autoimmune destruction of beta cells of the pancreas.

Cause for NIDDM

NIDDM is determined heritably and is expressed with age or other factors like obesity, diet and inactivity.

Home Remedies for Diabetes

1. Diabetes treatment with Bitter Gourd

Among the several home remedies that have proved helpful in controlling diabetes, perhaps the most vital is the use of bitter gourd. It has lately been established that bitter gourd contains a hypoglycaemic or insulin-like principle, designated as ‘plantinsulin’, which has been found precious in lowering the blood and urine sugar levels. It should, therefore, be included generously in the diet of the diabetic. For better results, the diabetic must take the juice of about four or five karelas each morning on an empty stomach. The seeds can be added to food in a powdered state. Diabetics can also use bitter gourd in the state of a decoction by boiling the pieces in water or in the form of dry powder.

2. Diabetes treatment with Indian Gooseberry

Indian gooseberry, with its high vitamin C content, is considered precious in diabetes. A tablespoon of its juice, mixed with a cup of bitter gourd juice, taken daily for two months, will arouses the islets of Langerhans, that is, the isolated group of cells that secrete the hormone insulin in the pancreas. This mixture decreases the blood sugar in diabetes.

3. Diabetes treatment with Jambul Fruit

Jambul fruit is another useful home remedy. It is regarded in customary medicine as a specific against diabetes because of its effect on the pancreas. The fruit as such, the seeds, and fruit juice are all helpful in the treatment of this disease. The seeds contain a glucoside ‘jamboline’ which is supposed to have the power to check the pathological conversion of starch into sugar in cases of increased production of glucose.

The seeds must be dried and powdered. One teaspoon of this powder should be mixed in one cup of milk or water or half a cup of curd, and taken two times daily. The internal bark of the jambul tree is also used in the treatment of diabetes. The bark is dried out and burnt. It will create an ash of white colour. This ash must be pestled in mortar, strained and bottled. The diabetic patient must be given ten grams of this ash on an empty stomach with water in the morning, and twenty grams in the afternoon, and in the evening an hour after taking meals. An equal amount of amla powder, jamun powder, and bitter gourd powder also makes a very useful remedy for diabetes. A teaspoon of this mixture once or twice a day would be efficient in checking the progress of the disease.

4. Diabetes treatment with Grapefruit

Grapefruit is a fine food in the diet of a diabetic patient. If grapefruits were eaten more generously, there would be much less diabetes. If you have sugar, use three grapefruits three times in a day. If you do not have sugar, but a propensity towards it and want to prevent it, use three a day.

5. Diabetes treatment with Fenugreek

The seeds of fenugreek have been found useful in the treatment of diabetes. Fenugreek seeds, when given in changeable doses of 25 gm to 100 gm daily, diminish reactive hyperglycaemia in diabetic patients. Levels of glucose, serum cholesterol, and triglycerides were also appreciably reduced in the diabetes patients when the seeds were consumed.

6. Diabetes treatment with Bengal Gram

Experiments have shown that the drinking of water extract of Bengal gram enhances the use of glucose in both diabetic and normal persons. When kept on a diet which incorporated liberal supplements of Bengal gram extract, the condition of tile patient improved considerably and his insulin requirement was decreased to about twenty units per day. Diabetes patients who are on a set diet which does not severely limit the intake of carbohydrates, but includes liberal amounts of Bengal gram extract, have shown significant improvement in their fasting blood sugar levels, glucose tolerance, urinary excretion of sugar, and general condition.

7. Diabetes treatment via Black Gram

For a milder sort of diabetes, two tablespoons of germinated black gram, taken with half a cup of fresh bitter gourd juice and a teaspoon of honey, is said to be valuable. It should be taken once each day for three to four months. A limit should be placed on the intake of carbohydrates. Still in severe cases, regular use of this combination, with other precautions, is helpful as a health-giving food for the prevention of various complications that may arise due to malnutrition in diabetics.

8. Diabetes treatment with Mango Leaves

The tender leaves of the mango tree are measured useful in diabetes. An infusion is prepared by soaking 15 gm of fresh leaves in 250 ml of water overnight, and squeezing them fine in the water in the moming. This filtrate should be taken every morning to manage early diabetes. As an option, the leaves should be dried in the shade, powdered and preserved for use when necessary. Half a teaspoon of this powder should be taken two times in a day.

9. Diabetes treatment via Parslane

The seeds of parslane are helpful in diabetes. A teaspoon of the seeds should be taken each day with half a cup of water for three to four months. It will raises the body’s own insulin and help in curing diabetes.

10. Diabetes treatment via Other Foods

Besides bitter gourd, certain other vegetables have been found helpful in diabetes. These comprise string beans, cucumber, onion, and garlic. Tea made of the pods of string beans is important in diabetes.

DIABETES CAUSES

Since there are different types of diabetes, each type has a unique possible cause.

The main two causes of diabetes is the body’s failure to produce enough of the insulin hormone, and secondly the body develops a resistance to insulin.

· Type 1 diabetes is due to decreased insulin production.

· Type 2 is due to insulin resistance in peripheral tissues.

· In juvenile diabetes, the cause might probably be a lack of vitamin D.

There is also gestational diabetes that only occurs in pregnant women.

Causes of diabetes -

Diabetes mellitus occurs when the pancreas does not create sufficient or any of the hormone insulin, or when the insulin produced does not work efficiently. Thus, this causes the level of glucose in the blood to be higher than normal levels

1. In Type 1 diabetes, the cells in the pancreas that make insulin are attacked and destroyed by the body’s own immune system, causing a severe lack of insulin.

It is not clear why this happens, but possible triggers of this reaction could be -

· infection with a specific virus or bacteria;

· exposure to food-borne chemical toxins or

· exposure to cow’s milk when as an infant, where as a yet unidentified component of the milk triggers an autoimmune reaction in the body.

However, these are only assumption, and are yet to be proven.

Type 1 diabetes usually develops in children, teenagers or young adults. Scientists believe this is a genetically caused condition and is not related to lifestyle habits.

Risk factors for developing type - 1diabetes include:

1. Family history - a child that has a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes has a 2-6% chance of developing the disease.

2. Autoimmune disorders - such as thyroid disease and celiac disease, raises the risk of type 1 diabetes.

3. Early stoppage of breastfeeding and/or exposure to cow’s milk - breastfeeding an infant for at least three months decreases the risk of type 1 diabetes. Some studies also show that exposure to cow’s milk or cow’s milk-based formula before one year of age may increase diabetes risk.

4. Ethnicity - Americans, Caucasians have a greater risk of type 1 diabetes as compared to African-Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans.

5. History of childhood virus diseases

2. Type 2 diabetes is believed to develop when:

· the receptors on the human cells in the body that respond to the action of insulin fall short of being stimulated by it - known as insulin resistance. In reaction to this, more insulin may be produced, and this over-production exhausts the insulin-manufacturing cells in the pancreas;

· there is just insufficient insulin available in the body and

· the insulin that is available may be abnormal and therefore doesn’t function properly.

The following risk factors increase the chances of one developing Type 2 diabetes:

· increasing age

· if it runs in the family, ie. hereditary

· obesity

· high blood pressure

· diet which is high in fat and low in dietary fibre

· sedentary lifestyle with no or very less physical activity.

· certain medicines such as diurectics, which increase the amount of water flowing into the urine. Corticosteroids can also lead to diabetes because they work against the action of insulin.

· gestational diabetes

· any illness or disease that damages the pancreas and affects its ability to produce insulin e.g. pancreatitis. (inflammation of the pancreas) and thyrotoxicosis (a poisonous condition that results from an overactive thyroid gland).

· hormone treatments, such as growth hormone, thyroid hormone and adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH).

What does not cause diabetes?

It is also important to be aware of the different myths that have arisen about the causes of diabetes over time.

Eating sweets, excess sugar or the wrong kind of food (fried and fatty food) does not cause diabetes. However, this type of a diet may cause obesity, and overweight people are generally prone to developing Type 2 diabetes. So, its not the food, but the effect of food that may cause diabetes.

So, if you love eating and are a foodoholic, make sure to burn out the extra calories that go on to make the flab.

Stress does not cause diabetes, although it may be a trigger for the body turning on itself as in the case of Type 1 diabetes. Stress, however does definitely make the symptoms worse for those who already have diabetes.

People with diabetes should never eat sugar and sweets. Sugar and sweets do raise the blood glucose, but people with diabetes can safely eat sugar as part of their meal plan.

People with diabetes should eat a special diabetes diet. This is a false notion. One has to eat regulated, along with a balanced diet.

Diabetes is not contagious. Someone with diabetes cannot transmit it on to anyone else.

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