Health Science, Understanding Diabetes

Diabetes is a common chronic metabolic disease with an increasing prevalence worldwide. This article will introduce the basic concepts, types, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes to help you better understand and prevent diabetes.

1. Basic Concepts of Diabetes

Diabetes is a metabolic disease that causes a series of complications due to insufficient insulin secretion or insufficient response of tissue cells to insulin, which leads to elevated blood sugar. Diabetes is divided into type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.

2. Symptoms of Diabetes

Symptoms of diabetes include polydipsia, polyuria, polyphagia, and weight loss. Polydipsia is caused by excessive water loss in the body, which leads to thirst; polyuria is caused by excessive water loss in the body, which leads to increased urine volume; polyphagia is caused by insufficient insulin secretion in the body, which leads to cells being unable to effectively use glucose, thus causing hunger; weight loss is caused by the inability to effectively use glucose in the body, which leads to weight loss.

3. Diagnosis of diabetes

Diagnosis of diabetes requires blood sugar testing and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Blood sugar testing includes fasting blood sugar and 2-hour postprandial blood sugar, with normal values ​​of 3.9-6.1 mmol/L and <7.8 mmol/L, respectively. OGTT refers to taking a certain amount of glucose orally in a fasting state, and then testing blood sugar 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours after taking the sugar to evaluate pancreatic islet function.

4. Treatment of diabetes

The treatment of diabetes mainly includes diet control, exercise and drug therapy. Diet control refers to the reasonable control of carbohydrate, protein and fat intake to maintain blood sugar stability. Exercise can enhance the body's sensitivity to insulin and help control blood sugar. Drug therapy includes oral hypoglycemic drugs and insulin injections. The specific treatment plan needs to be formulated according to the patient's condition and the doctor's advice.

5. Prevention of diabetes

The key to preventing diabetes is to maintain a healthy lifestyle, including a proper diet, moderate exercise, weight control and avoiding smoking. In addition, regular blood sugar testing and OGTT can also help to detect and treat diabetes at an early stage. For high-risk groups, such as those with a family history of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc., special attention should be paid to preventing the occurrence of diabetes.

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Diabetes is a common chronic metabolic disease that has a serious impact on physical health. Understanding the basic concepts, types, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes can help better prevent and control diabetes. At the same time, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and regularly performing blood sugar tests and OGTT can help detect and treat diabetes early and reduce the incidence of complications.