Quiet and discreet, diabetes is a disease that can long go unnoticed. Thus, five to ten years may elapse between the onset and the diagnosis, which is often done following a complication. Could you be diabetic without knowing it? How to improve detection?
During digestion, our foods are processed into sugar, the essential fuel to body cells. After a meal, insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, regulates the amount of sugar stored or “burned” in our cells. Diabetes is thus linked to inadequate secretion or action of insulin.
Characterized by a permanent excess of sugar in the blood, diabetes results from genetic and environmental factors. But can you be diabetic without knowing it? Yes, as long as diabetes is insidious and painless. It is usually diagnosed only five to ten years after its start. According to experts, between 1,500,000 and 4,000,000 people suffer from diabetes without knowing it in U.S.
In this population, there is overweight in over half the cases, a genetic susceptibility (the existence of a father or a mother with diabetes would double the risk of disease), physical inactivity, hypertension and stress. Some American experts from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommend a constant screening for those people:
- Individuals over 45 years-old;
- Earlier in patients who:
- Are obese;
- Have a first degree diabetic parent;
- Are members of a particular high-risk ethnic origin (African American, Hispanic, Indian, Asian …);
- Gave birth to a baby weighing over 4 kg or who has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes;
- Are hypertensive;
- Have a cholesterol level over 35 mg / dl or triglycerides level over 250 mg / dl;
- Exhibit glucose intolerance or abnormal fasting glycaemia.
Screening can be done through a simple blood test or a small puncture in the finger (capillary blood glycaemia). A blood glycaemia greater than 1.26 g / l (measured twice) is synonymous with diabetes. Some signs can alert the doctor: constant fatigue, dry mouth, recurrent and durable infections, thirsty and urinate urges.
Too often, diabetes is diagnosed following a complication: arthritis, heart attack, kidney, eye or neurologic damage. This late identification then requires urgent treatments.
Diabetes Treatment
Finally you may be an unwitting future diabetic! And if you do nothing, you will become diabetic and directly threaten your health! It is in these terms that the U.S. government has decided to tackle a real public health problem. The initiative is very innovative. Health officials have decided to educate Americans on a specific condition: pre-diabetes, this is to say when the rate of glucose in the blood is slightly above normal. Also known as intolerance glucose, this problem is likely to evolve into true diabetes if the person does not change his habits. Moreover, the pre-diabetic person sees his risk of heart or cerebral stroke increased by 50%! 16,000,000 Americans are affected, and may thus be added to the 17,000,000 diabetics sometimes soon.
It is therefore essential for these potential patients to pay attention to their diet and practicing regular physical activity. Many high risk individuals are overweight, and a small loss of 7 pounds would be extremely beneficial. But the real problem is that most of them are unaware of their condition. That is why the authorities encourage people to perform screening by measuring the blood glycaemia.
Everywhere in The Western world, the pre-diabetes issue is not new, but the American model might inspire some governments. In the meantime, you should ask your doctor to measure your blood glycaemia, even if your don’t have any symptoms.
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