Dr. Praveen Gulab Dandekar talks about Diabetes in Adults

Diabetes in adults

Diabetes was earlier thought to be a disease of old people. Over the years, that notion is changing quickly. Many people are diagnosed with diabetes much earlier in their life. Many things are responsible for this shift in age – lifestyle changes and genetic predisposition. Researchers are realizing that some of the risk factors for diabetes are present from childhood, like childhood obesity, which gets carried forward to adulthood leading to the early development of diabetes.

The risk factors

Following are some of the risk factors for the development of diabetes at a younger age:

• Obesity
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Affluence
• Indian ethnicity
• Family history of type 2 diabetes
• Low birth weight
• Exposure to type 2 diabetes in the womb
• History of diabetes during pregnancy in women

If you have any of the above risk factors, it may be beneficial to get your blood sugar levels checked frequently to ensure early diagnosis and better management.

Another way of diagnosis is monitoring symptoms. However, sometimes there are no obvious symptoms in people with diabetes. Frequent thirst, hunger and excessive urination are the classic symptoms, but there could be frequent infections, non-healing wounds, and blurry vision, which are not obvious symptoms of diabetes.

The problem

Type 2 diabetes is a condition where the body's cells do not take sugar inside them because they do not recognize insulin, which is a key to letting sugar in. This makes sugar accumulate in the blood. Initially, there are no problems, but it eventually affects small and larger blood vessels. When these blood vessels are affected, the supply to vital organs like kidneys, nerves, and eyes is affected, and patients develop complications. Thus, early diagnosis and early management are extremely important.

Management

If you are an adult and unfortunately diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it is understandable that it is tough to accept it. However, early diagnosis is always better because there is more time to treat diabetes and thus prevent complications. Besides, acceptance helps you take appropriate measures, which may help you to control blood sugar levels more easily.

Some patients may not even need medications to treat diabetes at this stage, especially when they adhere to strict dietary instructions and exercise to achieve healthy body weight.

The doctor would initiate lifestyle measures, monitor blood glucose levels, and when the lifestyle measures are insufficient, doctors initiate oral drugs to lower the blood sugar levels. Or else, the doctor may start oral anti-diabetic drugs and the necessary lifestyle measures. In addition to the anti-diabetic medicines, there could be other problems, for example, hypertension and cholesterol abnormalities. These may also require treatment because several lifestyle diseases go hand in hand; controlling them better may help prevent other diseases and related complications when there is just one lifestyle disease.

No matter the age of the diagnosis of diabetes, it can be managed medically. However, the patient has a more significant role, if not equal to the doctor, in the success of treatment. With lifestyle adjustments and medication adherence, one can live a comfortable life despite diabetes.

References:

Nadeau KJ, Anderson BJ, Berg EG, et al. Youth-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Consensus Report: Current Status, Challenges, and Priorities. Diabetes Care. 2016 Sep;39(9):1635-42.
Wilmot E, Idris I. Early onset type 2 diabetes: risk factors, clinical impact and management. Ther Adv Chronic Dis. 2014 Nov;5(6):234-44.
CDC. Type 2 diabetes. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/type2.html.

 

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