diabetes?!?

Question

What are diabetic patients supposed to eat? Do diabetic people die faster than normal people? And can you please explain diabetes.

Thank you soo much!

Answer 1

Dear Beachbell,

Regarding your second question - it depends on how well a person controls their blood sugar levels.

I've have Type 1 for more than 42 years and one of my younger brothers has had it for 48 years.

I had to be hospitalized in the beginning because I nearly went into a diabetic coma before the family dr. finally diagnosed what was wrong with me. He had been saying that there would only 1 in a family so I got sicker and sicker.

But I've managed fairly well and I had 2 healthy children without any complications.

As far as eating I haven't been deprived. I eat to live rather than live to eat.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

2

Answer 4

In a nutshell, Diabetes is the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. If your blood sugar gets too high, you can die. If it gets too low, you'll fall into a coma, and die. People with diabetes do, in fact, die "faster" in some cases, if they don't check their blood sugars frequenty, and watch their intake of food. The complications of diabetes is what kills them, heart disease, high blood pressure, poor circulation, kidney failure, the list goes on. You should really ask this question in Diseases and Conditions, as this is not a Mental Health issue. No big deal, but you can probably get a better response from that forum. Go to any diabetes website, or just Google it, and you'll get more detailed information. My best friend has this, so I know a lot, but, if you've been diagnosed, or know someone, it is smart to learn in case of an emergency. Good luck.

Answer 5

Within the pancrease, a hormone called insulin is produced by islets of langerhans. Insulin is a polypeptide hormone which regulates carbohydrate metabolism. When the pancrease stops functioning completely, no insulin is produced. This creates extreme blood glucose levels. These high levels create great stress on the organs of the body. It effects circulation, vision, even mood and thought processes among many other things. That's why it is important to keep blood glucose levels at a healthy level. People with diabetes are supposed to eat very balanced meals, staying away from excessive carbs and sugars. Unfortunately, people with diabetes can die faster than healthy people but you can live a long life with the disease if you take care of yourself, eat properly and exercise.

Answer 6

They eat normal stuff but they have to balance appropriately because they have difficulties absorbing sugar. Insulin is the 'key' that allows sugar into a cell. Type 2 diabetics do not make insulin and therefore have huge amounts of sugar floating in there blood with no place to go. This is bad because is starts to build up in distant places (fingers and toes) and also places where there is a tight squeeze (blood supply to your eyes). Diabetics then have a much greater chance of disease then most others so their life expectancy is less (not saying that if you manage your disease well you will die early but they also average those people into the number that screw off and not take their meds).

Hope this was a good start but search it out on the net, there is tons of info out there.