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Risk Factors Associated with Diabetes

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Diabetes
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease associated with the inability to store and metabolise glucose effectively. In the UK alone there are just under 3 million people diagnosed with diabetes and approximately 850,000 who are not aware that they have it. (Nhs.uk, 2014)
Because the transporters for glucose to be stored and metabolised are Insulin dependent in most areas of the body (except the Blood Brain Barrier), an absence or deficiency in Insulin results in Increased levels of glucose in the blood. Diabetes is diagnosed when the blood glucose level of a normal healthy individual is above 11.1mmol/l and in a fasting state above 7mmol/l. Diabetes can occur because of two factors:
Due to the inability to produce Insulin from …show more content…

The retina contains the Photoreceptors which produce and transmit visual information to the brain to form an image. Damage to these cells due to blockage or leakage prevents supply of oxygen and nutrients to these cells leading to visual loss over time.
Neuropathy – damage to the nerves in the feet which causes diabetics to hurt their feet even more since they cannot sense the pain.
UTI –Bacteria is found in the Intestine and is excreted with urine through the urethra. When glucose is present in the urine, this provides a medium and nutrition for bacteria to grow causing inflammation of the bladder (cystitis) as well as it spreading up the ureter’s to the kidneys (pyelonephritis). The risk of UTI’s are also increased by a weakened immune response due to a smaller amount of lymphocytes travelling to the area of infection because of a reduces blood flow caused by diabetes. (Diabetes.co.uk, 2014)
Ketoacidosis – is specifically a symptom of Type 1 diabetes because there is an absence of Insulin altogether. This occurs because glucose cannot absorb into cells hence unable to be used as an energy source and the body turns to degrading fatty acids for energy. The by-products of this reaction are Ketone bodies which decrease the PH of the blood. The compensatory mechanism to this is the body hyperventilating to exhale as much CO2 as possible to lower the PCO2 in the blood. Presence of insulin inhibits ketoacidosis hence this symptom not occurring in type 2 diabetes.

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