Don't Be Scared If You Are Suffering From Diabetes Mellitus

A common type of diabetes that often takes place in people all over the world is the one which involves the patient's sugar levels rising up beyond the allowed levels in the body. This condition is well known as Diabetes mellitus. When a patient suffers from this kind of problem, he or she usually excretes urine that is full of sugar otherwise known as "sweet urine" by doctors. Other symptoms may include, experiencing moments of excessive thirst, irritability, experiencing nausea accompanied by vomiting, unusual weight loss and sometimes having a sweet smelling breath. As for men, this disease can make them have erectile dysfunction.

Diabetes mellitus usually occurs when the body fails to either produce or respond to insulin. Insulin is a hormone in the body that makes it possible for the glucose in the blood to enter body cells for it to be used for energy production. When this fails to happen, most of the glucose is forced to stay in the blood hence being saturated with sugar a condition that is known as hyperglycemia. For this reason, some of the excess glucose in the blood is forced to trickle into the urine and that is why you will find patients of diabetes mellitus passing urine that is full of sugar. Other problems that may occur apart from urinating sweet urine are such as, body cells experiencing starvation for energy or damaging of the kidneys, nerves, heart vessels and blood vessels.

A common way of diagnosing diabetes mellitus is through a test referred to as The Oral Glucose Tolerance Test. With this test, the patient is required to fast for about 16 hours before the test can be conducted. An initial blood sample is then taken from the patient before several other samples amounting to at least five within a period of 3 hours are taken right after the patient is made to drink a solution full of sugar. Once this has been done, sugar levels in the blood get to be compared with the ones in the immediate previous blood sample that was taken.

For people without diabetes mellitus, the first sample of blood after taking the solution, will appear to have its blood glucose rise very sharply but as the doctor continues testing, the subsequent blood samples will appear to have their blood glucose levels also drop sharply until they return to normal levels. However, the same cannot be said for diabetic patients. Diabetes mellitus patients will in turn have the first blood test show that glucose content has rapidly shot up but unlike in people without this disease where the elevated blood glucose reduced rapidly in the subsequent tests, in diabetic people, the subsequent blood tests will show a slow drop of the glucose levels.

There are four main types of diabetes mellitus that exist today and Type I also known as Insulin-Dependent Diabetes mellitus is one of them. This condition often occurs in people who are below the age of 30 years and is usually caused by the auto-aggressive T cells in the body that cause the infiltration of the pancreas which lead to the destruction of the insulin-producing B-islet cells. Type II also known as Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus is another type of diabetes mellitus that is usually caused by either inactivity, consumption of certain drugs, obesity or excess consumption of alcohol among other lifestyle habits. This disease is however common in people above the age of 30 years.

Another type of diabetes mellitus is known as Secondary diabetes mellitus. This condition develops as a result of a previous medical condition which may have caused a destruction of the pancreatic tissue that is responsible for insulin production. These medical problems may include, trauma, chronic pancreatitis not forgetting a surgical removal of the pancreas. To bring to four the list of diabetes mellitus is the Gestational diabetes. This is a problem for pregnant women which lead to both the expectant mother and the unborn child develop other forms of diabetes in future. An appropriate diet together with exercises may help to make this type of diabetes mellitus go away once the baby has been born.