Diabetes care
Diabetes mellitus, more commonly known as diabetes, is a disease in which the body does not produce and/or properly use insulin, a hormone that aids the body in converting sugars and other foods into energy. Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by chronically elevated levels of blood glucose, or hyperglycemia, which results from a reduction or absence of activity of the peptide hormone insulin. Insulin, which is produced and secreted by the beta cells of the pancreas, promotes the utilization of glucose and is essential to the maintenance of blood levels of glucose within the normal physiological range. Diabetes is a disease process derived from multiple causative factors and characterized by elevated levels of plasma glucose or hyperglycemia in the fasting state or after administration of glucose during an oral glucose tolerance test. Persistent or uncontrolled hyperglycemia is associated with increased and premature morbidity and mortality. Often abnormal glucose homeostasis is associated both directly and indirectly with alterations of the lipid, lipoprotein and apolipoprotein metabolism and other metabolic and hemodynamic disease. There are several different types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes results when the pancreas either does not make insulin, or the body destroys the insulin that is made. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas makes sufficient amounts of insulin, but the cells cannot use the insulin. Type 1 diabetes is also called "insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus", because persons with this type of diabetes require insulin shots. Type 2 diabetes develops when muscle, fat and liver cells fail to respond normally to insulin. This failure to respond (called insulin resistance) may be due to reduced numbers of insulin receptors on these cells, or a dysfunction of signaling pathways within the cells, or both. The beta cells initially compensate for this insulin resistance by increasing their insulin output. Over time, these cells become unable to produce enough insulin to maintain normal glucose levels, indicating progression to type 2 diabetes. Patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus are at especially increased risk of macrovascular and microvascular complications, including coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, hypertension, nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy. Therefore, therapeutical control of glucose homeostasis, lipid metabolism and hypertension are critically important in the clinical management and treatment of diabetes mellitus. In general, the goal of diabetes treatment is to control glucose level in the blood and maintain it in a range that mimics that of a non-diabetic individual, namely reproduces natural physiological glucose homeostasis. To date, this goal has not been fully effectively achieved. Diabetes is typically treated by monitoring the glucose level in the body via blood and/or urine sampling and attempting to control the level of glucose in the body using a combination of diet and parenteral injections of insulin. Parenteral injections, such as subcutaneous and intramuscular injections, deliver insulin to the peripheral system. People with Type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by a pump or injections. People with Type 2 diabetes may be able to control their blood glucose by following a careful diet and exercise program, losing excess weight, and/or taking oral medication. Many people with diabetes also need to take medications to control their cholesterol and blood pressure.
Diabetes care categories
Glucose test strip
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