Diabetes is a metabolic disorder

What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder which is dependent on the regular process of food digestion. When food is digested a kind of sugar called glucose, which is a source of energy of the body, enters the bloodstream. Insulin produced by pancreas moves glucose from the blood into other cells of fat, liver and muscle. Here they are used as fuel. Diabetic people have high content of sugar in their blood. It is because the body becomes unable to produce enough insulin.

Types of diabetes
Diabetes is mainly of three types. Gestation diabetes, type 1 and type 2. Gestational diabetes is diagnosed in a woman during pregnancy. Type 1 diabetes is found mainly in children, teenagers or young adults.  Very little or no insulin is produced in their body. There is no exact cause known and to treat it daily injections are needed. The diabetes of type 2 is found in adults but obesity has made teenagers and young adults prone to it as well.

Symptoms of diabetes
Diabetes is accompanied by blurry vision, fatigue, excess thirst, frequent urination, and hunger and weight loss. Type 1 diabetic patients suffer from these symptoms over a short period of time while in type 2 diabetes, there may be no symptoms. Thus, it can be checked through urine analysis and blood tests.

Causes of diabetes
The causes may be obesity, lack of exercise, stress or family history. When blood sugar is constantly high it may lead to failure of kidneys, problems related cardiovascular parts and neuropathy. They have more chance to suffer coronary disease and stroke. Rather, diabetes is far more dangerous for pregnant women and their baby.

Treatment
Patients have to take taking care of diet, exercise and medication properly to treat diabetes.  New improved insulin and its therapy and oral hypoglycemic drug may be used to control elevated sugar level. Pregnant women should take care of their health during gestational diabetes phase.  

Recent developments
Researchers have developed implantable insulin pumps that deliver the insulin needed in the blood sugar. Insulin inhalers and insulin pills have also been formed to tackle the disease. New insulin like glarine, aspart, A 75/25 lispro mixture are also developed.
The food and drug administration has also approved pain free glucose tests which can be done by the patient himself without incurring any pain. The organization has also approved continuous monitoring device to be used by a diabetic patient for his monitoring.
New treatments like islet cell transplant and gene therapy have also come up. Even a vaccine is being developed for the purpose of immunization from diabetes.