For most young people, diabetes is often considered a distant issue because they assume that “diabetes” is a disease of older adults or simply not of interest. They think they don’t need to know anything about diabetes until they actually have it. What you don’t realize is that just thinking this way already puts you at risk unknowingly.
Diabetes can affect all genders and ages
Many people may already know that diabetes occurs when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin or when insulin functions improperly, so it cannot use sugar (from foods like starches or sweets) to generate energy for the body. This causes blood sugar levels to become too high. If fasting blood sugar levels for at least 8 hours are equal to or greater than 126 mg/dL, or if tested without fasting and the level is greater than 200 mg/dL, it is considered a risk for diabetes. Prolonged high blood sugar can cause damage to various organs and lead to complications, especially in the eyes, kidneys, peripheral nerves, heart, and blood vessels.
Diabetes is classified into 4 types based on causes as follows:
- Type 1 Diabetes occurs due to insulin deficiency and requires insulin injections for treatment. It usually occurs in young and thin individuals and accounts for about 5 – 10 percent of cases.
- Type 2 Diabetes occurs due to partial insulin deficiency or insulin resistance (impaired insulin function). It usually occurs in adults and overweight individuals but is increasingly found in overweight or obese children. Treatment may start with diet control, exercise, and medication to lower blood sugar levels.
- Other types of diabetes such as those caused by certain medications, pancreatitis, or some viral infections.
- Gestational Diabetes
Are you one of those who neglect to seek information about diabetes?
Because you think, if your body isn’t abnormal, why bother paying attention…
In reality, diabetes is like a silent threat that secretly harms our health but is ruthless!!! Because by the time you realize it, it has already led to many serious diseases attacking you relentlessly. It starts its secret mission by quietly traveling through the blood vessels to affect every part of the body. Yes… a body that may still look young and healthy, but unknowingly, abnormalities are beginning to countdown. Instead of knowledge about diabetes reducing the number of people with the disease, the number of diabetes cases keeps increasing unknowingly, especially among young people.
How does late diagnosis affect treatment?
Diabetes causes changes in the body’s systems without us realizing it because sugar travels through the blood vessels. Every cell in a diabetic’s body is filled with sugar. A proper amount of sugar helps cells function efficiently, but if there is too much sugar, the undigested sugar transforms and causes cells to malfunction, leading to complications.
If we have had diabetes unknowingly for 8 years, it means we have not been treated. Diabetes would have already caused significant damage, such as eye damage, kidney damage, narrowing of the coronary arteries, and narrowing of the brain’s blood vessels. These conditions often have no symptoms. Most people believe they feel fine and think they are healthy, even though the disease is already present. This is why there is the term “diabetes screening,” which means going for a health check to see if you have diabetes. But if symptoms appear, such as blurred vision, and you go for an eye exam, only then will you find out you have diabetic retinopathy. In cases of chronic complications, these diseases are permanent. At best, treatment can only slow down organ deterioration or damage. For example, if the kidneys start to fail, diabetes must be treated and other factors controlled, which may extend the time before dialysis is needed from 5 years to 10 years.
Therefore, if a person meets the criteria for diabetes but it is mild and they change their behavior and lose weight, their blood sugar can return to normal, and we say they have recovered. But if they revert to old habits, the diabetes will definitely return because medically it is considered incurable. Moreover, as one ages, even if not as overweight as when first diagnosed, gaining a little weight increases the risk of diabetes again.
