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Diabetes \ Obesity \ Alzheimer’s Disease

Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which the body doesn’t produce or properly utilize the hormone insulin. The pancreas produces insulin to enable the body to assimilate glucose, amino acids and fatty acids for energy or storage. A deficiency of this hormone, or the ineffectiveness of its functioning causes the glucose level in the blood to rise.

There are 2 major types of diabetes. Type 1 (insulin-dependent) occurs mostly in the young and requires regular insulin injections. Type II (non-insulin dependent) occurs mainly in older people: some are controlled with proper diet and exercise; others may need anti-diabetes medication and insulin injections.

Symptoms of diabetes come in the form of constant hunger and thirst, frequent urination at night, and tiredness. Victims may also experience blurred vision, tingling sensations and numbness in the hands and feet, recurrent skin infections and itching in the private parts.

Complications from diabetes are severe hyperglycaemia, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and kidney damage; blindness, cataracts, and other eye disorders, poor healing of wounds, gangrene (tissue death), skin infection, and numbness due to nerve damage.

The causes of diabetes continue to mystify, but is believed due to genetics, auto-immune disorders, viral infections, obesity, poor dietary habits and lack of exercise.