WHAT IT IS

LIVING WITH DIABETES: APPROACHES, STUDIES AND MOREA

New approach to diabetes will soon allow the nation’s 13 million patients to look forward realistically to longer lives and fewer years of illness. Leading diabetes researchers believe they are close to fashioning a grand weapon against diabetes. At last they developed solid evidence that they can reduce dramatically the often fatal or profoundly damaging effects of diabetes. They include kidney disease, blindness, sexual impotence, crippling leg pains, gangrene, and even limb amputations.This optimism comes from a landmark study that showed that diabetics could forestall these complications. To reach this goal, patients must keep the level of sugar in their blood as close to normal as possible.What Is Diabetes?In Type I, or insulin-dependent, the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed. Without daily doses of insulin – by injection or through a pump – blood sugar levels rise dangerously, leading to coma and death. Type I diabetes afflicts about 500,000 Americans. It was formerly called juvenile diabetes because it usually strikes children and young adults. Classic symptoms include frequent urination, excessive thirst and hunger, and weight loss.In Type II, or noninsulin-dependent, the body makes insulin but too little or too much. Mysteriously, some patients become resistant to the hormone. Type II diabetics are usually overweight and treated with diet control plus oral medicine that stimulates the pancreas to make the hormone. These patients may also take insulin along with the pills.About 12 million Americans have Type II diabetes. It’s also sometimes called adult-onset diabetes because it’s commonly found in adults. Half of these people don’t know they have it, because they do not immediately have the classic symptoms. The usual symptoms do develop gradually. These patients also evolve hard-to-heal infections of the skin and urinary tract, and itching of the skin and genitals.

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