Diabetes and prediabetes are common diseases among Americans. Almost a full one-third of the American populace has some form of this disease. This disease is manageable with treatment and lifestyle changes, but it often proves to be debilitating and fatal to many who develop it.
The reason this disease is so serious is due to the fact that diabetes symptoms tend to be mild to innocuous. Diabetes symptoms can easily be misdiagnosed as symptoms of other illnesses or as common ailments that occur periodically. Such symptoms include extreme thirst, hunger, fatigue, frequent urination, and dry mouth. If you experience one or more of these symptoms and are concerned that you’ve contracted the disease, here are five contributing factors that may surprise you.
Causes and Symptoms of Diabetes
1. Heredity
When you visit your general physician for the first time, you’re given a paper application to fill out. The application asks you a series of questions, including questions about your family’s history of illness and disease. The reason for this is that many diseases are hereditary and can be passed on through generations of children and grandchildren. Diabetes is one of these diseases.
If someone in your immediate family has this disease, your chances of contracting it are increased. This means that the genetic marker for this disease is in your family line and could’ve been passed onto you. Although you cannot change your genetic disposition for developing this disease, you can help to reduce the likelihood that the latent disease will be triggered.
2. Being Overweight
Being overweight can trigger a multitude of crippling and fatal health conditions, one of which is Type 2 diabetes. The reason that being overweight is conducive to contracting this disease is due to the fact that being overweight makes your pancreas work overtime to produce insulin. Being overweight, usually, is caused by a combination of an unhealthy diet, a lack of physical activity, and overeating. The reason that your food packages contain a label displaying the recommended daily serving percentages for all nutrients, fats, and sugars is to prevent you from overworking the organs in your body during digestion and absorption. Years of overeating unhealthy foods that are rich in sugar can put a dangerous amount of strain on your pancreas to produce more insulin than it’s designed to produce on a daily basis. After years of your pancreas working too hard to produce insulin to keep up with your overindulgence of sugar and carbohydrates, your pancreas will eventually malfunction.
3. Pregnancy
Although the wonderful joy of motherhood cannot be overstated, pregnancy is not without its dangers. Believe it or not, it is possible for a pregnant woman to temporarily develop what’s known as gestational diabetes. This disease is caused by the pregnancy. It occurs when the placenta releases hormones into the mother’s bloodstream. These hormones trigger an increase in blood glucose (sugar) in the mother’s body. If the mother’s pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to break down the extra glucose, it causes blood sugar levels to rise and develop the condition. The good news for mothers who suffer from this particular type of sugar-related medical condition is that it usually ends once the mother gives birth. To help offset the extra glucose in the mother’s bloodstream from the hormones, a reduction in sugar and carbohydrate consumption is recommended until the baby is born.
4. Age
Age plays a large factor in the status of your body and health as a whole. Entropy is an unfortunate fact of living, and your body is subject to the ravages of this slow and natural process. The longer your pancreas works to produce insulin, the more it wears down. Even if you keep your diet within a reasonable range of sugars and carbohydrates, every organ is a muscle and muscle eventually wears down due to age. The most susceptible group of people is those over the age of 45, so get your blood glucose levels tested regularly.
5. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) is only found in women and is a cause of women becoming diabetic. PCOS causes a hormonal imbalance in a woman’s body, which causes her body to become resistant to the effects of insulin. With insulin unable to do its job, blood glucose levels remain high and the journey to becoming a diabetic begins. There are ways you can manage or reverse your PCOS symptoms to help stave off the effects of the hormonal imbalance and the insulin resistance.
In the fight against this crippling disease, you will want to check in regularly with your physician. Adopt a diet that’s full of foods that will reduce your blood glucose levels and increase your daily amount of exercise. Proactive measures are the best way to prevent this disease from taking over your life.
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