Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common condition that many people live with. It’s characterized by elevations of blood glucose levels. Why is that bad? Well, high glucose levels affect our arteries, nerves, kidneys, and eyes.
The problem with diabetes is that it can be a silent disease. At Germantown Primary Healthcare, we understand how hard it is to comply with your treatment plan if you’re feeling healthy. Nonetheless, neglecting it will lead to consequences.
What happens in diabetes is that glucose can’t enter a person’s fat and muscle cells. It’s usually driven in by insulin, but in type I DM, there’s an insulin deficiency, and in type II, there’s insulin resistance. Our goal is to get glucose into these cells and out of the blood.
A healthy diet and exercise are our first methods of treatment, usually in combination with drugs. All diabetics need to get some exercise and eat healthily. Junk food and a sedentary lifestyle will make things worse.
Next, we rely on oral hypoglycemic drugs like metformin and/or insulin. Many patients with type II DM start with metformin but need insulin in the long run as the pancreas is exhausted from the overproduction of insulin to counter the resistance.
Those with type I DM are commonly on insulin from the start since their body isn’t making any. We don’t exactly know why their body stops producing insulin. It could be genetic or due to an infection.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a definitive treatment for diabetes yet. Insulin pumps and similar devices are showing promising results, though. We treat to prevent the many potential complications.
Diabetes affects many tissues like the nerves, blood vessels, eyes, and kidneys. These effects occur over the years and only produce symptoms at a late stage. People who have uncontrolled diabetes for years may notice numbness or tingling in their extremities or changes in vision.
These complications are preventable with tight glycemic control. That’s why at Germantown Primary Healthcare, we’ll do our best to get you to comply with a treatment plan tailored for you.
