Community Health Problems

“Community Health Problems with Latinos”

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“Community Health Problems with Latinos”

Introduction

Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic condition in which the pancreas, a gland near the stomach, fails to make insulin or does not make enough insulin, or in which the body becomes insensitive to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that works to convert what we eat to glucose or sugar. Insulin supplies muscles and other tissues with glucose for growth and energy. Without insulin, the body's blood sugar cannot be regulated, leading to a buildup of sugar in the blood (hyperglycemia) and loss of fuel for the body. Symptoms of diabetes include excessive thirst, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss, extreme hunger, vision changes, tingling in the hands or feet, dry skin, and sores that are slow to heal.

Causes

Diabetes results from a combination of genetic and environmental factors, as well as factors related to lifestyle. In general, each person has a hereditary background that predisposes to suffer from diabetes or otherwise. Researchers today know more genes, that make an individual risk of developing type-2 diabetes. People who are genetically predisposed to the disease are generally overweight or can be said that it is particularly accumulation of fat in the organs of the abdomen that cause resistance to the insulin, that is the first step toward type 2 diabetes (Diaz VA, 2007).

Initially, to overcome the resistance to insulin, the pancreas begins to produce more insulin. However, over time, the pancreas becomes exhausted and insulin secretion decreases. So there is a relative lack of insulin and glucose, and then it remains high continuously. Type 2 diabetes can be said as an outcome of two factors: first, insulin resistance, and the second is exhaustion of the pancreas.

Diagnosis

As type-2 diabetes is rarely accompanied by symptoms in its early stages, it is often discovered incidentally during a routine medical examination. Blood glucose test can detect a fasting glucose test or random and, sometimes, a glucose tolerance test. This test is a blood sugar reading that is 2 hours after ingesting a sweet juice containing 75 gm of glucose. Often, the fasting glucose rises gradually over the years and moves from a normal to an intermediate state of pre-diabetes and diabetes threshold (Bantle, & Albright, 2006).

Glucose level in a blood can be measured by a blood test or estimated from a glucose meter (gluco-meter), which analyzes glucose in a blood in a drop of blood from the fingertip.

Symptoms of type-2 diabetes

At its inception, the type 2 diabetes has few or no symptoms. It can go unnoticed for several years. Some patients may observe the symptoms caused by hyperglycemia, such as:

A frequent urge to urinate, especially at night. The kidneys produce more urine in order to try to eliminate the excess glucose in the blood.

Increased hunger and thirst, with dry mouth.

Excessive sleepiness, 'which is noticeable' and that is especially after meals.

Blurred vision.

Bacterial infections or fungus most frequently (urinary infections, virginities, etc.) (Hogan, 2002).

Description

Diabetes is a major public health problem. In past years, approximately 1.1 million people worldwide died ...