CHRONIC ILLNESS

Chronic Illness - Diabetes

Chronic Illness - Diabetes

Introduction

The word Chronic comes from “chromos” which represents “time” and chronic illness does not reflect any specific or just one illness. In fact, chronic illness depicts a group of health conditions that are persistent in nature and last for a long time. If one is affected with chronic illness, he or she requires long-time medical treatment - months or years - in order to recover. In today's world, there are different kinds of chronic illness which do not go away in a short span of health treatment (Morewitz, 2006). It is also a fact that most of the chronic illnesses are not communicable or infectious. However, these types of illnesses are genetic in nature and existing generation or parents may pass them on to future generation or their children before their birth through genes.

It is also a fact that, chronic conditions limit the functions of body and may create a life threatening condition for individuals. Further, chronic illness usually refrain the affected people from their normal or usual activities and limit them in the light of health advice through on-going treatment. It is also not necessarily that people affected with any chronic illness will always remain sick and never get back to their normal life. There are many people around the world living with chronic illnesses including asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, etc. These illnesses affect their bodies in different ways and raise some challenges tin their lives. In fact, due to the long-term persistence of chronic conditions, most of the people learn how to manage their life with such illnesses (Siegel, 2003, pp. 210-222).

Chronic Illness - Diabetes

Diabetes has been chosen as chronic condition to guide this paper as the disease is a significant public health concern in United Kingdom. In fact, Diabetes is a condition characterized by a relative insulin deficiency resulting in an abnormal fuel-hormone response, especially when challenged by the ingestion of food. This abnormal fuel-hormone response involves decreased storage and utilization of fuels and results in elevated blood levels of glucose, free fatty acids, and ketones. Diabetes results from a deficiency in the insulin-secretory mechanism of the beta cells of pancreas, a faulty insulin receptor site on the cell surfaces of liver, adipose, and muscle tissue, and/or a metabolic defect in the cell itself (Morewitz, 2006).

Further, the main source of energy in the body diabetic patient is glucose which passes into the bloodstream after digestion where it gets available for the cells to store, use or take in to be used later. Diabetes usually causes the pancreas to stop producing insulin or does not produce it at all. It is also important to understand that Insulin basically monitors and helps breakdown the fats and carbohydrates consumed in a person's diet. In addition, diabetes is known to deteriorate the body over a period of years as the glucose damages and clogs the small capillaries that usually feed the heart, feet, eyes and kidneys (Morewitz, 2006). Other complications include erectile dysfunction, weight gain, gum diseases, depression, fatigue, high cholesterol and blood ...