Diabetes Type 2: Symptoms, Risk Factors, Prevention

Diabetes Type 2: Symptoms, Risk Factors, Prevention

Diabetes is a life-long disease that impacts the method your body handles glucose, a sort of sugar, in your blood.

Diabetes Type 2: Symptoms, Risk Factors, Prevention

Most people with the condition have type 2. There have to do with 27 million individuals in the U.S. with it. Another 86 million have prediabetes: Their blood sugar is not normal, but low enough to be diabetes yet.

What Causes Diabetes?

Your pancreas makes a hormonal agent called insulin. It’s what lets your cells turn glucose from the food you eat into energy. People with type 2 diabetes make insulin, however their cells don’t use it as well as they should. Medical professionals call this insulin resistance.

Initially, the pancreas makes more insulin to try to get glucose into the cells. However eventually it cannot keep up, and the sugar develops in your blood instead.

Normally a mix of things cause type 2 diabetes, including:

Genes. Researchers have discovered various littles DNA that impact how your body makes insulin. [Read more in the article Is Type 2 Diabetes Genetic? ]

Extra weight. Being obese or overweight can cause insulin resistance, especially if you carry your extra pounds around the middle. Now type 2 diabetes affects kids and teenagers along with adults, primarily because of youth obesity.

Metabolic syndrome. Individuals with insulin resistance typically have a group of conditions including high blood sugar, extra fat around the waist, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol and triglycerides.

Too much glucose from your liver. When your blood sugar is low, your liver makes and sends out glucose. After you eat, your blood sugar level increases, and normally the liver will decrease and keep its glucose for later. However some people’s livers do not. They keep cranking out sugar.

Bad communication in between cells. Often cells send out the wrong signals or don’t pick up messages correctly. When these issues affect how your cells make and use insulin or glucose, a chain reaction can lead to diabetes.

Broken beta cells. If the cells that make the insulin send out the wrong quantity of insulin at the incorrect time, your blood sugar level gets thrown off. High blood glucose can damage these cells, too.

Also read: Type 2 Diabetes and Hypoglycemia

Risk Factors and Prevention

While specific things make getting diabetes more likely, they won’t offer you the disease. However the more that apply to you, the higher your chances of getting it are.

Some things you cannot manage.

  • Age: 45 or older
  • Household: A parent, sister, or bro with diabetes
  • Ethnic background: African-American, Alaska Native, Native American, Asian-American, Hispanic or Latino, or Pacific Islander-American

Some things relate to your health and case history. Your doctor might be able to help.

  • Prediabetes
  • Heart and blood vessel disease
  • High blood pressure, even if it’s treated and under control
  • Low HDL (“great”) cholesterol
  • High triglycerides
  • Being obese or overweight
  • Having a baby that weighed more than 9 pounds
  • Having gestational diabetes while you were pregnant
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
  • Acanthosis nigricans, a skin problem with dark rashes around your neck or armpits
  • Anxiety

Other risk factors pertain to your everyday routines and lifestyle. These are the ones you can truly do something about.

  • Getting little or no workout
  • Smoking
  • Stress
  • Sleeping insufficient or excessive

Because you cannot alter what occurred in the past, focus on what you can do now and moving forward. Take medications and follow your doctor’s suggestions to be healthy. Basic modifications at home can make a huge difference, too.

Slim down. Dropping simply 7% to 10% of your weight can cut your risk of type 2 diabetes in half. [Read more in Weight Loss Instruction ]

Get active. Moving muscles use insulin. Thirty minutes of vigorous walking a day will cut your risk by nearly a third.

Eat right. Avoid highly processed carbs, sweet drinks, and trans and hydrogenated fats. Limit red and processed meats. [Read more in What is The Best Diet for Type 2 Diabetes? ]

Stopped cigarette smoking. Deal with your doctor to avoid putting on weight, so you do not create one issue by resolving another.

Symptoms

The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can be so mild you don’t observe them. In reality, about 8 million people who have it have no idea it.

  • Being extremely thirsty
  • Peeing a lot
  • Blurry vision
  • Being irritable
  • Tingling or numbness in your hands or feet
  • Feeling broken
  • Wounds that don’t recover
  • Yeast infections that keep returning

Getting a Diagnosis

Your doctor can test your blood for signs of diabetes. Generally doctors will test you on two various days to confirm the diagnosis. However if your blood glucose is very high or you have a great deal of symptoms, one test might be all you need.

A1C: It’s like approximately your blood glucose over the past 2 or 3 months.

Fasting plasma glucose: This determines your blood sugar level on an empty stomach. You will not be able to eat or drink anything other than water for 8 hours prior to the test.

Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT): This checks your blood sugar prior to and 2 hours after you drink a sweet drink to see how your body manages the sugar.

Long-Term Effects

In time, high blood sugar can damage and cause problems with your:

  • Heart and blood vessels
  • Kidneys
  • Eyes
  • Nerves, which can lead to problem with digestion, the feeling in your feet, and your sexual response
  • Wound recovery
  • Pregnancy

The best way to prevent these complications is to handle your diabetes well.

  • Take your diabetes medications or insulin on time
  • Inspect your blood sugar
  • Eat right, and do not avoid meals
  • See your doctor frequently to check for early signs of problem