Diabetes is a chronic disease in which a person’s glucose (blood sugar) is higher than normal. After our bodies have digested foods and turned them into sugar, the pancreas produces insulin. Insulin helps the body take sugar (blood sugar) out of the bloodstream and helps to shuttle it into our cells to be used for energy. If a person has diabetes, their bodies either doesn’t make enough insulin (Type II) or the body doesn’t use the insulin as it should (Type I). Either of these conditions can result in high sugar (glucose) levels (CDC, 2013).
Uncontrolled diabetes can affect nearly every organ of the body; of which, heart disease and kidney failure are most commonly impacted. Known as diabetes mellitus, a collective term for various blood abnormalities, the term diabetes refers to either a scarcity of insulin in the body or the body’s inability to accept insulin. Though the symptoms of diabetes are manageable, many are unaware as to having it. According to the CDC report “2011 Diabetes Fact Sheet,” approximately 6 million people in the United States have undiagnosed diabetes. Undetected, diabetes can become deadly. In a recent World Health Organization report “Diabetes Action Now: An Initiative of the World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Federation,” it
Diabetes, Diabetes Mellitus, is a chronic illness this means that it has no cure and the symptoms persist over a long period of time. This illness is a result of an imbalance of hormones, insulin, produced in the pancreas. Insulin plays an important role in how the body uses food. Insulin enables the cells in the bloodstream to absorb and use glucose for fuel. If the pancreas produces too little or no insulin or if the insulin doesn’t work properly the person may become diabetic. Therefore, diabetics are not able to properly convert food into fuels needed by the body to function, which can seriously lead to physical consequences.
Diabetes is a disease that causes an abnormally high level of sugar, or glucose, to build up in the blood. Glucose comes from food we consume and also from our liver and muscles. Blood delivers glucose to all the
The effects of diabetes are nothing less than devastating. It is a disease that is affected by interdependent genetic, social, economic, cultural, and historic factors (CDC, 2011a). In the United States, nearly 26 million Americans are living with diabetes, and another 79 million Americans have prediabetes (CDC, 2011a). Diabetes has been associated with reducing the quality of life of people with the disease, and it also has a tremendous economic burden on our health care system. In 2007, diabetes and its complication accounted for $218 billion in direct and indirect costs in 2007 alone (Dall, et al., 2010).
More than five million are living with Alzheimer’s disease in the United States and the number is set to almost triple by the year 2050. It is common in the elderly and generally occurs in persons over 65 years of age, but early onset of Alzheimer’s has also been documented (“Alzheimer’s disease facts,” 2016, para. 1). It starts in the medial temporal area of the brain, usually in the hippocampus, and then spreads to other areas of the brain. Blows (2011) explains, “Alois Alzheimer was a German psychiatrist who in 1906 described a dementia with two specific changes found in the brain after death... these changes were the presence of extracellular plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles and these became the hallmarks of this disease” (p. 286). Loss of neurons takes place and amyloid plaques form. This is due to build-up of non-functioning proteins and can be observed by imaging techniques (Radin, 2003, p. 41). There are many risk factors that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The greatest risk factor is family history, but other risk factors include diabetes, hypertension obesity, hyperlipidemia, smoking, depression, physical inactivity, low estrogen levels, and head trauma (Huether & McCance, 2014, p. 546). The actual cause of Alzheimer’s is unknown, but there are genes associated with it that make the disease heritable. What is clear is that
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the development of plaque or protein deposits in the brain, especially areas associated with memory. Brain neurons collapse, crumble, and lose connections with other neurons which causes disorientation, confusion, erratic behavior, and partial to complete memory loss. (Trivedi, Bijal, 2012). While a poor sensitivity to insulin is associated with type 2 diabetes, some researchers including Dr. Suzanne de la Monte, a neuropathologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, have suggested that Alzheimer’s disease may in fact be another type of diabetes. If these scientists are correct in their suppositions about diabetes and dementia, immediate and troubling concerns are going to present overwhelming challenges to the medical and senior care systems. Ewan McNay, of the University of Albany in New York states that “if the epidemic of type 2 diabetes continues on its current trajectory, it is likely to be followed by an epidemic of dementia” (Trivedi, Bijal, 2012). Alzheimer 's disease is increased in individuals with diabetes. Higher glucose levels in individuals without diabetes has also been associated with elevated occurrences of Alzheimer 's disease. These findings
Dementia is a syndrome which is progressive in nature, characterized by impairment of memory and loss of intellectual ability.1 Decreased level of Acetylcholine in the brain, neuro-inflammatory reaction, rise in the oxidative stress and hypercholesterolemia have been reported to play an important etiological role in the memory decline.2 Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia which is a progressive and a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the presence of senile plaques rich in insoluble aggregates of β amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. AD has been estimated to account for 50–60% of dementia cases in persons over 65 years of age worldwide.3 Alzheimer’s Disease International
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is a type of dementia that no one would ever want their grandmother or grandfather to suffer from, as it destroys memory and other important mental functions of its sufferer. Alzheimer's disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. While the age 65 and older is its target age, it has consumed the lives of over 1.9 million people. The brain begins to show signs of damage in the hippocampus, the part of the brain essential in forming memories. As more neurons die, parts of the brain then begin to shrink. By the final stage of Alzheimer’s, damage is widespread, and brain tissue has shrunk significantly. The idea that Alzheimer’s disease is related to age in 1974 was introduced
Vascular Dementia can occur after a person has a stroke due to major blood vessels being blocked.
In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer had a patient named Auguste D. He described this patient by saying she had “profound memory loss and unfounded suspicions about family” (Alzheimer, 1906). After his patient had died, he performed an autopsy to rule the cause of death. Alzheimer claims he found “dramatic shrinkage and abnormal deposits in and around the nerve cells”. His findings set new standards for understanding neuro-degenerative disorders around the world. In 1910, this newly discovered abnormality was coined as “Alzheimer’s Disease” (healthline.com). Researching soon ensued and scientists now had more information than ever. In 1976, Alzheimer’s was recognized as the most common cause of dementia. By 1984 Beta-amyloid was found present in brain
According to Born (n.d.), diabetes has become a growing concern throughout the world with an increase of diabetes related cases by 4.1 percent since 1985. There are currently 285 million people suffering from diabetes and it is estimated that this number will increase to 438 million by 2030. Diabetes cases are not only reported among adults but also children with 18.8 million diagnosed cases and 7 million undiagnosed. In the United
Diabetes, often referred to by doctors as diabetes mellitus, describes a group of metabolic diseases in which the person has high blood glucose (blood sugar)1 . In 2011 The American Diabetes Association repoted a 25.8 million people in America living with diabetes 2. Diabetes is a illness that can be caused by the body not being able to produce enough insulin and or cells in the body not responding adequately to the insulin provided. Insulin which is produced by the pancrease, regulates the amount of glucose (which provieds energy to all cells) in the blood.
Diabetes refers to a set of several different diseases. It is a serious health problem throughout the world and fourth leading cause of death by disease in the country. All types of diabetes result in too much sugar, or glucos in the blood. To understand why this happens it would helpful if we understand how the body usually works. When we eat, our body breaks down the food into simpler forms such as glucose. The glucose goes into the bloodstream, where it then travels to all the cells in your body. The cells use the glucose for energy. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps move the glucose from bloodstream to the cells. The pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus further explains the concept on how this disease works. Pancreas
Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body produces too little insulin (Type One Diabetes) or can’t use available insulin efficiently ( Type Two Diabetes). Insulin is a hormone vital to helping the body use digested food for growth and energy.