Best way to treat diabetes mellitus type 1

Best way to treat diabetes mellitus type 1 1

Like a type 2 diabetes, diabetes mellitus type 1 also on rise. diabetes mellitus type 1 is caused by genetics or environmental factors. In Karnataka there are 17 cases of diabetes mellitus type 1 per 100,000 children.

Diabetes mellitus type 1 is type of Diabetes which happens when your immune system destroys cells in your pancreas called beta cells. They’re the ones that make Insulin which further cause of the high blood sugar.

Type 1 diabetes in India: Overall insights

Some people get this because beta cells get wiped out due to other diseases or injury to the pancreas. This type called as secondary diabetes.

To understand diabetes mellitus type 1, let's know about Insulin

What is Insulin?

Insulin is a chemical (hormone) produced by our body to transfer sugar to your liver, muscles and all other body tissues. Cells use this sugar for energy.

Insulin considered as main anabolic hormones in our body. Low insulin levels in the blood have the opposite effect by promoting widespread catabolism, especially of reserve body fat.

Insulin quote

This insulin hormone is secreted by beta cells of the pancreas. Damage to these beta cells causes to stop production of Insulin therefore body can't move sugar in tissues.

Which result in a diabetes mellitus type 1.

Symptoms of diabetes mellitus type 1

High blood sugar in body causes:

Weight loss:

in the absence of Insulin, body starts a process called Gluconeogenesis in that process body use muscles as fuel.

Dehydration:

excess amount of sugar is thrown out of your body by pee. Therefore, your body gets dehydrated often.

Ketoacidosis:

Also called as diabetes ketoacidosis (DKA). As like gluconeogenesis body also break down fat for fuel and create ketones. When these acidic ketones mixed with high blood sugar that causes Ketoacidosis.

Symptoms of diabetes mellitus type 1

Along with these you can see following type 1 diabetes symptoms:

  • Frequent urination
  • Bed-wetting in children
  • Very high and frequent hunger
  • Mood swings
  • Fatigue and weakness
  • Blurred vision

Diabetes mellitus type 1:Major causes

Till now, the actual cause of diabetes mellitus type 1 is unknown.

Usually the body's own immune system attacks on beta cells of the pancreas.

Genetics and viruses are other possible causes.

Can I get a type 1 diabetes?

Following are some risk factors of diabetes mellitus type 1:

Family history:

Anyone with a family history of the type 1 diabetes have a greater risk of diabetes mellitus type 1

Genetics:

presence of certain genes indicates an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

Age:

type 1 diabetes can appear at any age, it appears at two noticeable peaks. The first peak occurs in children between 4 and 7 years old, and the second is in children between 10 and 14 years old.

What are the complications of the type 1 diabetes?

"Diabetes, high sugar, so what?? Why should I care?"

Here are some complications of type 1 diabetes. Because of them you should get serious about your health.

complications of the type 1 diabetes
  • Diabetes increases risk of coronary artery disease with chest pain, heart attack, stroke, narrowing of the arteries and high blood pressure.
  • Excess sugar can injure the tiny blood vessels.
  • Diabetes can damage a delicate filtering system of the kidneys.
  • diabetes mellitus type 1 can damage the blood vessels of the retina.
  • Diabetes can cause pregnancy complications.

How to prevent type 1 diabetes:

Sadly, There's no known way to prevent diabetes mellitus type 1.

But you can manage it and live like non-diabetic.

How treat Diabetes mellitus type 1

How treat Diabetes mellitus type 1

As your body doesn't produce Insulin you have to inject it in your body. For Insulin dosages you should consult with your doctor.

Most insulin comes in a small glass bottle called a vial. You draw it out with a syringe that has a needle on the end, and give yourself the shot. Some now comes in a prefilled pen.

Reduce Insulin dosages and manage sugar:

Diet:

Your lifestyle and eating habits plays major roles in the management of your sugar

Carbohydrates are the main cause for a raise in your blood sugar. Carbohydrates converted into a glucose. If you reduced carbohydrates from your diet, you will see significant improvement in your diabetes mellitus type 1 management. Protein and fat also converted into glucose through gluconeogenesis. But this process is very slow compared to carbohydrates.

Many people with diabetes mellitus type 1 are following a low-carb diet because of its benefits in terms of improving diabetes control, weight loss and being a diet that is satisfying and easy to stick to.

Your body needs low amount of Insulin on low carb diets.

How treat Diabetes mellitus type 1

Benefits of low carb diet:

  • Lower HbA1c
  • Improved weight loss
  • Less chance of high sugar levels occurring
  • Lower risk of severe hypos
  • More energy through the day
  • Less cravings for sugary and snack foods
  • Clearer thinking
  • Lower risk of developing long-term health complications

Ultra low carb diet like Ketogenic diet is best for you.

When people with diabetes mellitus type 1 followed a carb-restricted diet, those who followed the diet saw a significant improvement in blood sugar levels over a 4-year period.

Before starting any diet make sure that you consulted with your healthcare. Low carb diet required very less insulin specifically mealtime insulin. You have to adjust your dose of insulin according to your diet.

Workout:

Depending upon the type of exercises, exercise can help you to manage your blood sugar. While you exercise your body use glucose as energy and reduces from your blood.

Depending upon your type and intensity of exercise effect on your sugar varies.

Exercises and blood glucose

Weight training:

Weight training improves your sugar management on long term. When you do weight training your body's BMR increases result in better control of sugar.

Light intensity weight training reduces blood sugar immediately, But it doesn't have much effect on long runs.

High intensity weight training increases blood sugar during or after workout immediately. Because all glucose from liver get transferred into the blood. You can manage this by an increase in basal insulin dose. But high intensity weight training improves long term management. High intensity weight training also increases your strength, making you overall stronger.

Cardio exercises:

As like a weight training, cardio also help with managing blood sugar. Same high intensity cardio increases sugar during exercise and light cardio reduce sugar from your blood.

A combination of cardio and weight training in your workout plan improve your sugar problems greatly. According to your goals, you should adjust your amount of cardio and weight training.

Exercises for type 1 diabetes

Let's understand Insulin in depth

As mentioned earlier insulin is a hormone produced by our body to transfer sugar to your liver, muscles and all other body tissues. Cells use this sugar for energy.

For type 1 Diabetics, Insulin is made in the laboratories through various processes. This exogenous insulin is available in medical centers in Injectable form.

You can get Insulin in Insulin pump, prefilled pens and Injections.

Insulin quote by Jay Cutler

There are several forms of insulin categorized according onset, peak and duration.

Onset: length of time before insulin reaches bloodstream

Peak: time period when insulin is most effective

Duration: how long insulin works for

According to this following types of insulin available:

Rapid-acting

  • Brand name: Humalog, Novolog, Apidra
  • Onset: 10 - 30 minutes
  • Peak: 30 minutes - 3 hours
  • Duration: 3 - 5 hours
  • Rapid-acting insulin covers insulin needs for meals eaten at the same time as the injection. This type of insulin is often used with longer-acting insulin.

Short-acting

  • Brand name: Regular (R)
  • Onset: 30 minutes - 1 hour
  • Peak: 2 - 5 hours
  • Duration: Up to 12 hours
  • Short-acting insulin covers insulin needs for meals eaten within 30-60 minutes.

Intermediate-acting

  • Brand name: NPH (N)
  • Onset: 1.5 - 4 hours
  • Peak: 4 - 12 hours
  • Duration: Up to 24 hours
  • Intermediate-acting insulin covers insulin needs for about half the day or overnight. This type of insulin is often combined with a rapid- or short-acting type.

Long-acting

  • Brand name: Lantus, Levemir
  • Onset: 30-90 min.
  • Peak: No peak time. Insulin is delivered at a steadily
  • Duration: Up to 24 hours
  • Long-acting insulin covers insulin needs for about one full day. This type is often combined, when needed, with rapid- or short-acting insulin.

According to your eating habits, lifestyle, exercise, convince your doctor will provide you Insulin regimen.

5 essential tips by Diabetes.co.uk

Educate yourself!!

Read about diabetes mellitus type 1 and basic functions of a body. This will help you to manage high or low blood sugar.

Measure and track your blood glucose

Understand when your sugar is getting high or low. This will help you and your health care to manage your diabetes mellitus type 1.

Eat better, consult nutritionist!

Diet can be one of the most confusing aspects for people with diabetes mellitus type 1 as so much information is contradictory.

Just remember following statement: "I have to eat least amount of carbohydrates"

Do something!

Don't just sit whole day. Include some activities in your lifestyle.

Let others know.

Tell your close friends and relatives about your diabetes mellitus type 1. Lots of time you may faint because of low blood sugar.

Experience of diabetes mellitus type 1

This is story of Shreyas Ramakrishna who got his diabetes mellitus type 1 at age of 2

I was diagnosed when I was 2 years old, so I think I can answer this.

I didn't have too many challenges as a child, as I would obey everything my parents and my Endo told me to do. The major challenge I faced was overcoming the fear of needles and injecting myself, and the extreme dietary restrictions.

I got on a Medtronic insulin pump when I was 15, which allowed to me have a normal life during high school, and I loved the freedom(I still do). I could eat foods that I couldn't eat before, foods like pizza and it allowed me to play sports too.

It is challenging when you live alone, because I always have the fear of going low at night. And everything that I do, from an evening out with friends to going on trips is planned around the diabetes. And sometimes, employers assume that a person with diabetes mellitus type 1 is a liability to the company, which is rare, but I haven't heard stories from friends about it.

It is hard work keeping your sugars in check, controlling your diet, exercise and medication. But as long as it helps lead a longer and healthier life, I think it is really worth the effort

Experience of type 1 diabetes

Following story is of Mayank Singh

'Pray you never learn' this is a certain dialogue from Christopher Nolan's SciFi hit Interstellar, however I'd like to modify this a little, you'll get to know it just go through the following passage.

Let's face it, diabetes mellitus type 1 is BAD, it really is.

Apparently I was detected when I was just 10 years old, actually I was very fat and chubby when I was a kid prior to getting caught up by this catastrophic disorder.

Now, all of a sudden my life was about to turned outside down, after giving my 5th grade examination, during the days of vacations I started going to washroom to pee multiple times every night.

My sister found something really fishy about this so she informed my dad about this and as she is a medical student so evidently her knowledge about this was streets ahead of us, but then my dad was scared to even talk about diabetes mellitus type 1 dropping on his 10 year old son, so he completely ignored this symptom.

Fast forward a week, and all of a sudden every small task started to feel very uneasy for me, it was like I couldn't even walk 100 metres without hurting my lungs, after that my mom started to feel something, she thought I am having issues digesting food, so we went to CGHS(sorta government hospital for family of government employees here in India).

Unfortunately most of the times they aren't very qualified so they thought the same way my mom did, issued some syrup and tablets, my mom really tried hard to cheer me up at that time, making all the food I like, bringing in stuff from McDonald and Subway, yet after 3–4 days things were really falling apart.

Luckily we had a neighborhood (husband-wife) who were both professional doctors, they showed up in our house after my mom informed them about my well being, as soon as they came and diagnosed me, they suggested us to visit some private clinic as soon as possible.

Now I can't remember anything, I had what you can call it sort of Blackout, rest of the story is what my sister told me, anyway.

So we went to this clinic near my place, the guy asked what's wrong and what's not, after learning everything, thereafter he pinched a needle in my finger and collected the blood sample in a machine which was essentially a Glucometer, my analysis revealed my blood sugar was HI(over 600 mg/dl).

That guy himself appeared be very shocked and straightaway asked us to visit a big hospital, now we went to a hospital named Rockland Hospital (which is a pretty kick-ass hospital in South Delhi), now we went to the emergency of that hospital, I remember I could somehow get some visuals of the ceiling and all the nurses buzzing around me, straight up they checked my blood glucose, which was obviously HI again, now the doctors went onto arrange some huge machinery to accurately detect my blood sugar level, apparently my blood sugar level was roaming in around 1300 mg/dl.

This certainly isn't normal, those guys straightaway transferred me to their ICU unit, now till date I haven't seen my father drop a tear, certainly being an army guy he is a very tough and strong person emotionally, but that day 17th of April, 2010, I saw my father cry whilst they were getting me to their ICU unit, in ICU too I wasn't given anything to eat,

I remained their for like 3–4 days but I was only given suppliments via injections and cannulas, lemme tell you every cannula when gets in your nerve hurts like a bitch, those little plastic needle tearing your veins is such a pain, till date I have several marks on my hands of those unimaginably painful needles.

Diabetes and comma

Nevertheless, post my ICU session I felt much better, I was given food from the hospital canteen only(as spicy food could somehow happen to mess with my body), I was given numerous salts and medicines via cannula only till the day I was discharged from the hospital.

I personally thought for the time being that every person's insulin need is fulfilled automatically but in my case I've to do it manually, I was told this months after this all mayhem that had we been a few hours late, I was certain to fall in a state of coma and unconsciousness.

Anyhow, now 8 years later, I am doing just fine, I've to inject insulin 4 times daily to stay alive, if I somehow delay this or forget to go through this process, I get very uneasy and often use washroom a lot more than normal.

I have seen some people in my life who sorta happen to provide me with sympathy regarding this fact, and at the same time the same group of people make fun of me behind my back, think I'm weak and can't do things you normal people can.

Well this for sure isn't true, I performed fabulous in my high school grabbing 94% and I am currently pursuing Engineering from a very good college and have my future plans completely sorted.

Remember, there are certain things which will happen in life, but you gotta keep hitting them hard, stay in there, let the problem come to you and fight with every situation like a boss, also in the end I would like to confess that YES, I am a drug addict, but this drug has been helping me to stay alive and explore this amazingly beautiful world.

If you aren't a diabetic like me, then just enjoy and pray you never get caught up by this horrendous thing. Cheers.

Conclusion:

Diabetes mellitus type 1 is rare compared to type 2 diabetes.

A person with type 1 diabetes can live healthy and long life with proper management of diabetes mellitus type 1.

Your workout and Diet should be your first priority to improve.

You should always educate yourself.

You can say Type 1 diabetes is also game of luck. If you don't have it you are lucky person!!

What is your opinion??

Do you think type 1 diabetes is game of luck??

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