Health experts are almost universally convinced that numerous populations around the world, not only in the West, are in danger from obesity and diabetes. Not just are more and more middle-aged and elderly people becoming diabetic, but younger people are too.
The age groups developing diabetes are becoming younger, but there does not seem to be any national advice from governments or nation's environmental health agencies. If these health authorities have produced recommendations, they are not well broadcast.
At one time most people who got diabetes came from parents which had a history of diabetes. However, these days practically everyone has a risk of becoming diabetic.
The obese are at risk, opine the doctors, but they are not so sure why other, slimmer groups are developing it as well.
Why are thin, active, apparently healthy individuals becoming first unable to regulate the amount of sugar in their blood and thus entering the pre-diabetic stage? Lots of these people will be diabetic sooner or later.
The diagnosis of diabetes used to be a sentence to a slow, drawn out death with amputations and organ failure on the way to an early death. Blindness, cataracts, kidney disease and the amputation of toes and feet were normal.
Luckily, this is no longer a fact because of advancements in the understanding of the disease and medical break-throughs. Part of the treatment without medication involves a change in lifestyle involving increased exercise and attention to diet.
However, for those unable to heal themselves through lifestyle changes, there are drugs, hormones and technology:
One solution, the traditional answer, is to inject insulin, because diabetes is caused by a deficiency of insulin. First, the diabetic has to calculate how much insulin he needs and then supply it.
The insulin may be delivered by injection, but also by insulin pump, which measures the blood-sugar level and delivers the insulin automatically. There are also insulin inhalers which can supply instantaneous relief with fast-acting insulin in the mouth.
Insulin tablets are new, because insulin is digested by the stomach as it is a protein. These new tablets are covered in a polymer to get it past the digestive acids of the stomach. There is also a assortment of fat-acting and slow-acting 'mixtures' of different insulins for different people and different situations.
It is, naturally, vital to know the condition of your blood before you take insulin and some other medications and this has to be done with a monitor or a swab, although the latter is less reliable.
There are pain-free glucose test kits, which are not invasive and you can also get a wristwatch-type monitor that continuously checks your blood-sugar level and shows the results on the watch face
The drugs firms and the hi-tec companies are researching methods to make more money from the growing number of diabetics, so there are promises of break-throughs on the technological and the medical fronts all the time.
If you are unhappy with the therapy you are getting, change your GP to one who is interested in diabetes and who follows the latest ideas.
The age groups developing diabetes are becoming younger, but there does not seem to be any national advice from governments or nation's environmental health agencies. If these health authorities have produced recommendations, they are not well broadcast.
At one time most people who got diabetes came from parents which had a history of diabetes. However, these days practically everyone has a risk of becoming diabetic.
The obese are at risk, opine the doctors, but they are not so sure why other, slimmer groups are developing it as well.
Why are thin, active, apparently healthy individuals becoming first unable to regulate the amount of sugar in their blood and thus entering the pre-diabetic stage? Lots of these people will be diabetic sooner or later.
The diagnosis of diabetes used to be a sentence to a slow, drawn out death with amputations and organ failure on the way to an early death. Blindness, cataracts, kidney disease and the amputation of toes and feet were normal.
Luckily, this is no longer a fact because of advancements in the understanding of the disease and medical break-throughs. Part of the treatment without medication involves a change in lifestyle involving increased exercise and attention to diet.
However, for those unable to heal themselves through lifestyle changes, there are drugs, hormones and technology:
One solution, the traditional answer, is to inject insulin, because diabetes is caused by a deficiency of insulin. First, the diabetic has to calculate how much insulin he needs and then supply it.
The insulin may be delivered by injection, but also by insulin pump, which measures the blood-sugar level and delivers the insulin automatically. There are also insulin inhalers which can supply instantaneous relief with fast-acting insulin in the mouth.
Insulin tablets are new, because insulin is digested by the stomach as it is a protein. These new tablets are covered in a polymer to get it past the digestive acids of the stomach. There is also a assortment of fat-acting and slow-acting 'mixtures' of different insulins for different people and different situations.
It is, naturally, vital to know the condition of your blood before you take insulin and some other medications and this has to be done with a monitor or a swab, although the latter is less reliable.
There are pain-free glucose test kits, which are not invasive and you can also get a wristwatch-type monitor that continuously checks your blood-sugar level and shows the results on the watch face
The drugs firms and the hi-tec companies are researching methods to make more money from the growing number of diabetics, so there are promises of break-throughs on the technological and the medical fronts all the time.
If you are unhappy with the therapy you are getting, change your GP to one who is interested in diabetes and who follows the latest ideas.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with Diabetes Cook Books. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.
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