The death of US actress Michelle Trachtenberg at the end of February has highlighted how this increasingly common condition can become life-threatening.
Medical tests have now revealed she died due to complications from diabetes.
Diabetes (diabetes mellitus) is a condition which causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high.
When food is digested and enters the body’s bloodstream, insulin moves glucose out of the blood and into cells, where it is broken down to produce energy.
Instead, it remains in the blood.
Type 1 diabetes is categorised as when a person cannot produce any insulin.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes occurs when a person does not produce enough insulin or the insulin produced is not effective, so the body’s cells do not react to it properly.
There are other types of diabetes, such as gestational diabetes, which can occur during pregnancy and usually end after giving birth.
Insulin is one of the treatments for diabetes (Photo: Getty)How do people develop diabetes?
It is an autoimmune condition, which means a person’s immune system causes the problem.
The exact cause of type 1 diabetes is still unknown, although scientists believe it may be triggered in some cases by a virus.
It has several causes, including obesity, an unhealthy waist measurement for your sex or ethnicity and too much fat stored around the liver or pancreas.
Some risk factors, such as ethnicity, cannot be changed, but diet and exercise can impact factors such as obesity and waist measurement.
What are the complications you can get from diabetes?
It can lead to:
Damage to blood vessels can cause coronary heart disease or a stroke. Damage to nerves (called neuropathy) can reduce the blood supply to feet, leading to problems such as ulcers and infections. Damage of blood vessels in the eyes leads to sight problems such as diabetic retinopathy and blindness. People with type 1 diabetes are also more likely to get cataracts and glaucoma. Damage to kidneys, leading to kidney problems. Increased risk of gum disease and infectionHaving high blood glucose levels and a lack of insulin can also cause harmful substances called ketones to build up in the blood; this, in turn, can cause a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).
A healthy lifestyle can help to manage diabetes (Photo: Getty)
Treatment for type 1 diabetes involves daily doses of insulin either by injection or a pump, which is a small device attacked to your body.
Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle and learning to count carbs can also help control blood sugar levels.
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If Metformin is insufficient, they will be prescribed insulin to take via injection or pump.
According to the charity Diabetes UK, research has shown for some people, a combination of lifestyle changes can reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes by about 50 per cent.
There is no cure for type 2 diabetes, but lifestyle changes can sometimes lower your blood glucose to a normal level and stop diabetes; this is known as remission.
(Information from Diabetes UK and NHS)
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