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Compose a 3000 words essay on Diabetes and Heart Disease. Needs to be plagiarism free!Download file to see previous pages... Diabetes is a comparatively frequently occurring chronic disease in adolesc
Compose a 3000 words essay on Diabetes and Heart Disease. Needs to be plagiarism free!
Download file to see previous pages...Diabetes is a comparatively frequently occurring chronic disease in adolescence and exhibits the typical aspects of a chronic illness (Inge, 2001:25).
Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is a complex metabolic disorder. It is characterized by an absolute or relative lack of circulating insulin. It develops as a consequence of an imbalance between insulin production and release on the one hand and hormonal or tissue factors modifying the insulin requirement on the other hand. Insulin, a hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreas and secreted into the blood, facilitates entry of glucose to body cells. Without insulin, excess glucose accumulates in the blood. The cells, deprived of their main source of energy, turn to the body's energy reserves, beginning with glycogen, and then proceeding to protein and ultimately fat, for sustenance. The burning of fat leads to the formation of highly acidic ketones, which also accumulate in the blood. The kidneys work overtime in an effort to clear the blood of both excess glucose and ketones, resulting in frequent urination. This leads to dehydration and concurrent losses of essential substances such as sodium.
The diagnosis of diabetes is frequently suggested by a history of polydipsia (excessive thirst), polyuria (excessive urination), and polyphagia (excessive food intake), associated with weight loss. A clinical suggestion of diabetes is confirmed by finding glucose in the urine and by detecting an abnormally elevated blood glucose level. Left untreated, insulin-dependent diabetes leads inevitably to death caused by the metabolic consequences of insulin insufficiency. In essence, the cells "starve" in the presence of sufficient foodstuffs (Hauser, Jacobson, Benes, &. Anderson, 1997).
Insulin-dependent diabetes mainly strikes children and adolescents and accounts for 10% of all known cases of diabetes. Medical treatment of diabetes primarily strives to maintain blood glucose levels within a range that avoids wide swings, which may lead to severe hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia. The status of a diabetic patient's metabolic adaptation may be assessed by monitoring certain physiological parameters at regular intervals, for example, by regularly testing blood and urine sugar levels. Most practitioners use glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1 or HbA1c) values. The HbA1 or HbA1c value, that is, the fraction of glycosylated haemoglobin in the blood, provides information about the average state of the metabolism over the preceding 4 to 8 weeks (Inge, 2001:26-27).
Patient Compliance and Practitioner Relationship
The therapeutic demands on patients and their parents are complex and involve injecting insulin, monitoring glucose levels in the blood and urine, and attending to dietary regulations on a daily basis. Obviously, diabetes therapy can only be successful if both the adolescent and the parents understand the treatment. For the attending practitioner, the goals of diabetes therapy include reducing or eliminating clinical symptoms and helping the patient to achieve normal growth, correctly timed maturation, and physical efficiency. Certainly, the most important aim is to minimize the danger of long-term damage.
