Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects millions of people around the world.
Diabetes is hyperglycemia, it is an excess of sugar in the blood. The patient has difficulty storing, using and even assimilating sugar.
There are three types of diabetes:
- The first type is insulin-dependent, it is caused by a destruction of the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas, it is an autoimmune disease and it mainly affects young people
The main treatment is to replace the insulin that is lacking for life.
- The second type is non-insulin dependent, it mainly affects people over 50 years old. It is favored by environmental and genetic factors; it is polygenic diabetes. It is often the consequence of overweight or obesity associated with insufficient physical activity.
The reference treatment is the optimization of lifestyle habits: weight loss if the patient is obese, regular physical activity and a balanced diet may be sufficient to control blood sugar initially. In second intention, oral and/or injectable antidiabetics are prescribed to control blood sugar.
- There is also another type that affects pregnant women called gestational diabetes. It is usually temporary, although women with gestational diabetes can develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
pregnancy is by nature diabetogenic because there is physiologically during this period a state of insulin resistance which will gradually worsen during pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes should be monitored and treated as it poses a risk to both mother and child.
