Diabetes Mellitus, or diabetes, is a disease that is caused by the body’s inability to turn sugars into energy. Diabetes causes the sugars that your body does not turn into energy to enter your blood stream and causes your kidneys, which filter the blood, to work harder than is necessary. If your kidneys cannot properly filter the sugars from your blood, the result is more frequent urination, dehydration, and loss of energy.
Diabetes Mellitus is diagnosed when your body’s fasting blood glucose level (amount of sugar in the blood) reaches 126 milligrams/deciliter. You can be diagnosed as having different stages of diabetes mellitus. One diagnosis is pre-diabetes. You are diagnosed with pre-diabetes if your blood glucose levels are higher than is normal when tested, but you are not yet experiencing the symptoms of diabetes. People who are diagnosed with pre-diabetes are at higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes at a later time, and are at a higher risk for heart disease and stroke.
If you are diagnosed with pre-diabetes, your physician will suggest changes in your lifestyle in order to offset the risk of developing type-2 diabetes. This will include eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise.
Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disease – caused when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin. Insulin is the natural hormone in your body that helps turn sugars into energy by moving these sugars from the blood stream to the muscle, fat, and liver cells. The muscle, fat, and liver cells then use the sugars as fuel for your body. Your body needs a certain level of energy to enable your internal organs to function properly. Your body also needs energy to perform the daily activities involved in leading a normal life.
If your body does not produce enough energy for your internal organs to function and for you to perform activities, you have a low metabolism – and you can often be tired, irritable, and experience bouts of fatigue. If your body produces more energy than you are using, you have a high metabolism and may be restless, fidgety, and experience bouts of hyperactivity.
There are other health risks involved with diabetes mellitus. The risk of heart disease and strokes is increased in patients who have been diagnosed with diabetes and other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, obesity, abnormal cholesterol, and high triglycerides. The more factors involved, the more your chance of dying from heart disease or stroke increases.
Although diabetes mellitus is a controllable disease, the combination of diabetes and other risk factors decreases your chance of living a normal life span. It is very important that you take steps before you are diagnosed with diabetes to prevent its onset or to delay the onset as long as possible.
The single most important step you can take in the prevention of diabetes is to live a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle includes many different aspects of your life. Eating a healthy diet is essential to helping your body to perform its normal tasks as naturally as possible. A regular exercise routine is essential to maintaining a healthy weight and in keeping your muscles toned, which allows your muscles to assist your internal organs in performing their tasks. Avoiding stress, or learning how to deal with stress in a healthy manner, helps your brain and nervous system to work with other parts of your body to perform the tasks needed to sustain life.
It is important that you realize how your body works together – and how the things that you do on a daily basis can prevent your body from performing the tasks necessary.
Beginning a healthy lifestyle as early as possible gives you the best chance to avoid the risks associated with diabetes mellitus – and decreases the chances of the other factors that may come into play – thereby decreasing your risks of more serious diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Both your physical condition and your mental condition play an important role in your overall health.
