Diabetes in Older People

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes, to the extent that 90 percent of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes and only the other 10 percent have type 1 diabetes or gestational diabetes. Obesity, lack of physical activity and an unhealthy diet are the main reasons type 2 diabetes occurs in people who are genetically predisposed to this disease. Among the other reasons one can point to high blood pressure, high triglycerides and low blood HDL. Also, people who have a form of impaired fasting glucose together with impaired glucose tolerance are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes; in addition, studies have shown that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases with age. For this reason this type of the disease is also called adult diabetes. On this basis, obese people over 40 years of age have a higher risk of developing diabetes. Of course, the appearance of this type of diabetes in young people is also on the rise.

Diabetes

Diabetes arises because of the body’s inability to produce or use insulin. Insulin is a substance produced by the pancreas, and its role is the use of sugar as the body’s greatest source of energy. If the body faces a shortage of insulin or is unable to use insulin, blood sugar rises, which is called (hyperglycemia). With raised sugar over the long term, the microvascular complications of diabetes, that is the destruction of the very tiny vessels in the body, develop, which over time affects all the organs of the body and leads to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, sexual dysfunction and infections that end in the loss of a limb. Unfortunately diabetes is a chronic disease that progresses slowly. Especially when type 2 diabetes occurs it is sometimes not noticed. That means the affected person goes on living for months or even years without being aware of their illness.

Type 1 diabetes

This type of diabetes, which is also called insulin-dependent diabetes, arises mainly in childhood and adolescence. It occurs as a result of insufficient insulin in the body, and its symptoms disappear with daily injection of insulin (often subcutaneously). For this particular type of diabetes, patients need lifelong treatment and must be sure to inject insulin in order to go on living. The symptoms and signs of type 1 diabetes in the body are severe hunger and increased appetite, severe thirst and dry mouth, frequent urination, numbness or pins and needles in the feet, unusual weight loss, tiredness and lethargy, skin problems such as dry skin, fungal and bacterial infections, blurred vision and loss of consciousness.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes, known as adult diabetes or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, is a type of disorder in the body’s metabolism in which high blood sugar results from resistance to insulin or from a relative shortage of insulin. This stands in contrast to type 1 diabetes, in which, because of the destruction of the islet cells in the pancreas, we are faced with an absolute lack of insulin.