Diabetes, just like the criminals we find on TV, attack the things that are most important to us. Diabetes is something that I personally have heard a lot about as I have pursued the medical field. But, until researching more about the topic I never realized how criminally devastating it is to those who experience it. Diabetes is a health imbalance that appears like an isolated event, but it is something that affects our physical state, mental health, social bonds, and economic status. This imbalance can be caused by various factors, but through education on the condition of diabetes, how diabetes affects an individual, and what factors cause diabetes, we can see how balance is the body's ideal and it should be ours as well.
What is diabetes? Diabetes is a condition where the body cannot absorb glucose. Normally the body has a delicate balance between glucose and insulin. Glucose is generally provided when an individual consumes food. That material is then broken down and glucose is produced. To process this glucose, insulin is then secreted to allow the glucose to enter cells to be used as energy. Insulin is produced via the pancreas and without insulin, glucose would remain in the body and it would not be able to be processed.
When diabetes occurs two things can happen. First, with type one diabetes, an individual is born with a genetic condition where the pancreas destroys its B cells. This causes the pancreas to not produce enough insulin to process the glucose in the body. Another avenue that brings about diabetes is called ‘type two’ diabetes. With this condition, an individual consumes products that have a large amount of glucose. They consume these items consistently and often. The body begins to produce insulin in such large quantities that the B cells in the liver become overwhelmed. They cannot meet the demand for insulin and the cells become damaged leaving the body with an insulin deficiency. Even though type one diabetes is genetic, it is treatable with insulin shots. Type two is preventable with basic lifestyle changes, but it is also treatable once the disease has set in. However, once someone has diabetes they have the condition for the rest of their life and many negative effects occur.
Diabetes seems like such a small, insignificant, balance between two tiny compounds: insulin and glucose. But, this small dysfunction has physical, mental, social, and economic effects. The effects of diabetes ruthless attacks are most easily observed when looking at the physical body and its systems. The body's goal is to maintain a level of ‘homeostasis’. This means that the body wants all fluids and functions to be in perfect balance so the body does not need to undergo drastic changes to stay healthy. Diabetes is a large impediment to this expectation. This inability to absorb glucose via insulin causes issues like high blood pressure, oxidative stress, metabolism malfunctions, etc. All these conditions can eventually lead to critical care or death because these long term changes create a significant amount of stress to the body. Because of these conditions it becomes harder for an individual to be healthy because the body is using its resources to correct these errors. Even the bacterial colonies in the small intestine change and these affected biomes make it harder for the individual to absorb nutrients. Not only is it more difficult for the body to remain healthy on its own, but when someone with diabetes gets sick, their diagnosis leaves them more susceptible to sickness. This occurs because diabetes causes immune cells to become compromised, so a full immunity response cannot occur. The body’s stress doesn’t just affect our tissues and organs, but our minds.
Having diabetes makes one more prone to mental illnesses, like depression. Since diabetes leads to many debilitating physical conditions it can make someone feel discouraged or overwhelmed with health challenges on top of their regular life challenges. This extra stress can lead to mental illness. Mental disorders can make it difficult to find happiness and to enjoy life. In young children, mental illness can make it hard to navigate childhood. Children are growing, developing, and learning, but with diabetes they have much more on their plate than their peers and it can affect their development. In adults, diabetes causes mental illness as well, but it also has been noted to make some significant emotional changes. A positive correlation has been made between when the body has a difficult time absorbing glucose and anger issues. These aggression issues can be difficult for a person to handle internally but it also has social consequences.
Social health is important to individuals. Individuals thrive on connection with others and diabetes can sever that connection. As stated above, diabetes can make an individual more angry than those without diabetes. This could make it more difficult to manage home relationships, personal relationships, work relationships, and even a relationship with yourself. Diabetes can cause other mental conditions that can isolate someone from their social support groups thereby cutting them off from the benefit of these connections. Even the physical effects of diabetes can make it difficult to go out and be with others. The physical conditions may cause pain, heart palpitations, fatigue, and other symptoms that may make a night out look like a chore. It is important to maintain these social relationships so that we can develop properly and work with others in the best way possible. Social relationships also cultivate happiness and a ‘net’ to catch someone if they need help. Not only are personal relationships affected, but the wallet is too.
One concern of developing a lifelong illness like diabetes is: how much is this going to cost? Diabetes is a lifetime companion. It costs individuals so much money that there are stories of patients choosing between medication or other important bills. If an individual chooses not to take the medication they will eventually pay a hefty ER bill as the symptoms of diabetes can cause life threatening outcomes. Diabetes also makes people more susceptible to being ill. This might cause an individual to go to a special facility to be taken care of or more frequent healthcare visits. That is more money out of the pocket. With so many negative qualities produced by diabetes how can we fight back?
Before fighting back we need to find out what is causing diabetes. Diabetes is mostly caused by genetics (type one) or lifestyle choices (type two). According to the CDC, 90-95% of recorded diabetes cases are found to be type two. That means that for 90-95% of people who have diabetes it was preventable by changing their lifestyle choices. So, let's prevent diabetes. To start, as a society we should take better care of ourselves. Oftentimes to prevent diabetes it just takes simple lifestyle changes like eating less sugary/ fatty foods. We can also take steps to drink more water and exercise daily. These are simple habits that could save someone from all these terrible effects of diabetes. But, even with these known simple lifestyle choices, it looks like America’s obesity rate and ultimately diabetes rate have been increasing alarmingly over the past couple of years. This silent epidemic is taking lives and dollars everyday. Awareness is the first step to avoiding the development of diabetes.
The public should be more aware of disease and how it can affect a person as a whole. I always thought of diabetes as a disease to the body. I didn’t know that its effects would leak into one’s mental, social, and economic life. Just like the body needs balance we need to find a balance in our lives. A balance of health, exercise, personal connection, knowledge, etc. All these things are interconnected. Just like how diabetes can have such terrible effects in many aspects of our lives, we can change those aspects to fight against diabetes/disease. By exercising more, creating a supportive circle, budgeting, etc. we can make our lives happier and ultimately healthier. We can try to achieve as the body does. We can find balance in our physical health as we look towards a more holistic way of care.
Citations
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, December 16). Type 2 diabetes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/type2.html#:~:text=Healthy%20eating%20is%20your%20recipe,them%20have%20type%202%20diabetes.
Economic costs of diabetes in the U.S. in 2012. (2013). Diabetes Care, 36(4), 1033–1046. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc12-2625
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2021, January 20). Type 2 diabetes. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20351193#:~:text=Instead%20of%20moving%20into%20your,to%20meet%20the%20body's%20demands.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Chronic illness and mental health: Recognizing and treating depression. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/chronic-illness-mental-health
As I read your post, it really made me think about just how important the push for population-wide involvement in diabetes treatment and awareness is. This disease impacts so many individuals, and in many cases is preventable, so this knowledge and associated resources are very important to know. I like how you tied social health into diabetes and the holistic balance needed to treat the disease.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather. Love the title. Great post -- I like how you approached the idea that a disease such as diabetes can push an already imbalanced body and person to further imbalance, often socially and mentally. It really takes over all aspects of life.
ReplyDeleteHeather, I appreciated the way that you educated about diabetes in more common language. It is easy for topics like metabolic pathways in diabetes to get full of jargon and confusing explanations, but I feel like yours was very accessible and easy to digest.
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