Causes Of Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes Mellitus is regarded as a silent killer that shows such signs, which are quite indistinct. The death it causes is mostly slow and gradual; in fact, at times the blood vessels start deteriorating because of the high level of glucose in the blood, years prior to the disease being diagnosed.
Diabetes is a combination of several metabolic disorders, which are caused either by lack of insulin or because the cells are not responding to the insulin being. This, in turn, causes rise in the level of sugar in blood. There are several factors that account for diabetes, which are:
Drugs:
Drugs affect the level of sugar in blood by increasing it. Such drugs include steroids, Alloxan, Streptozocin and Dilatin. These medicines are poisonous to the beta cells in pancreas, which produce and exude insulin.
Heredity:
Diabetes is inherited from one generation to the other. If both the parents have Diabetes, the odds of children inheriting the disease are 90 percent.
Diet:
Usually people take a lot of carbohydrates, fats and other rich forms of food, which hinder the normal secretion of insulin, consequently elevating the sugar level in blood causing Diabetes. Thus, a balanced diet is very important in order to prevent Diabetes.
Obesity:
People who are over-weight have greater chances of having diabetes. Basically, the function of insulin is to regulate sugar level in the body by sending it to the tissues and cells through blood. Due to extra fat, the cells become unresponsive to insulin resulting in hyperglycemia and then eventually diabetes. Therefore, losing weight might just be the solution for a person who is on the way to being a diabetic.
Viral infections:
Viral infections may also become a cause of Diabetes, for instance, in diseases transmitted by Coxsackie B virus, the pancreas gets infected due to the damage of beta cells. This results in weakening of blood sugar regulating system, which was controlled by pancreas, thus causing diabetes.
Age:
Age is the most common factor that influences the chances of being diabetic. Usually, people above the age of 45 are more likely to get diabetes. The reason behind it is that people become less active as they grow older, which makes them gain weight and in due course they become diabetic.
Emotional stress:
Usually, increase in sugar level takes place when people are stressed. So, in order to meet extra energy, epinephrine and cortisol secretion takes place, as their very role is to elevate the sugar level in blood when needed. That is how emotionally stressed people are more likely to be diabetic.
Smoking:
Regular smokers out there should be very careful about the choice they have made because they are very likely to develop retinopathy and joint immobility because of their smoking habit. It would not be an exaggeration to state that they might die an untimely death.
Hence, by taking care of most of these causes, we can easily prevent ourselves from having diabetes. As said by Dana Hill, an American actress that she drew on diabetes as a weapon and wounded herself with it. So, all we have to do is to keep away of this weapon in order to be safe, rather than treating the damage done by it.
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