An estimated three million German suffering from diabetes and not know it. The disease is heralded by forerunners such as fatigue, but many patients do not recognize the characters.
Although Germany is the European leader in terms of diabetes-related diseases. Yet most Germans believe that it was none of diabetes. A mistake: in fact, there are approximately twelve percent of all 20 – to 79-year-olds in Germany, according to Diabetes Atlas of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) on the metabolic disease. Especially the overweight, people are at risk of familial predisposition and 50-year-old.
It is fatal that diabetes develops insidiously. Who, for example, often feels cut off and often suffer from infections, the same does not think of a serious illness. It evaluates the symptoms as general malaise, and usually they are not considered further. Who are the first signs of diabetes but seriously and in good time with a healthy diet and plenty of sports to controls, treatment with medication may be at least as type 2 diabetes avoid high probability.
Type thing: how to show the first symptoms
There are two types of diabetes – type 1 and type 2 The symptoms of both forms are similar. In what intensity they occur the first time, but differs considerably.
Autoimmune response destroys insulin-producing cells
Type-1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile or juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease. Certain white blood cells (T lymphocytes) are aimed specifically at the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, see them as foreign and destroy them. The body needs insulin, however, urgently, to absorb the sugar into the cells. Is there a lack of insulin, the sugar molecules from the cell remain locked out and therefore accumulate in the blood. Tricky to type 1 diabetes: The body notices the lack of insulin only when already 75 to 80 percent of insulin-producing beta cells are destroyed – and that can take a course of years. “Only then will show the symptoms like excruciating thirst, increased urination, and fatigue during acute and severely ill,” said Michael Roden, scientific director of the German Diabetes Center (DDZ), Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. The cause of type 1 diabetes is a combination of genetic factors, environmental factors such as viral infections and immune system reactions. Of type 1 diabetes about five to ten percent of all diabetics are affected.
Decreasing sensitivity to insulin
In type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, the body’s cells react more sensitive to insulin (insulin resistance). Initially, the body can compensate for this deficit by increasing insulin production still and keep blood sugar levels so in the normal range. After some time, insulin production decreases in the pancreas but steadily decreasing – the body’s own insulin is no longer available sometime in the required amount. In this type of diabetes the symptoms develop slowly emerge, making the disease particularly dangerous. Affected with mild symptoms usually do not go to the doctor so often takes five to ten years before diagnosis. “Not infrequently, the disease is discovered only after a heart attack – a common and dreaded consequence of type 2 diabetes,” says diabetes specialist Michael Roden.
As in type 1 diabetes type 2 are also involved in genetic predisposition play a role, but above all, obesity and lack of exercise. Type 2 diabetics make up the majority of patients – about 90 percent suffer from this form of diabetes.