autoimmune disease ° Type 1 diabetes °
Autoimmune diseases and their field are associated with the framework of the immune system, where they occur as a result of dysfunction in the function of the immune system.
Most autoimmune diseases are more prevalent among women than men by 2:1 to 10:1. This is due to the fact that women's immune system is stronger than men's, so when this stronger system becomes dysfunctional and attacks body tissue, the damage is greater.
The symptoms of diabetes are :
- Feeling more thirsty than usual
- Urinating a lot
- Bed-wetting in children who have never wet the bed during the night
- Feeling very hungry
- Losing weight without trying
- Feeling irritable or having other mood changes
- Feeling tired and weak
- Having blurry visionذ
Pre-diabetes
Many more people have blood sugar levels in excess of normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as having diabetes.
When to see a doctor
Consult your healthcare professional if you experience any of the above symptoms in you or your child.
Visit your GP as soon as possible if you experience the main symptoms of diabetes, which include:
- feeling very thirsty
- peeing more frequently than usual, particularly at night
- feeling very tired
- weight loss and loss of muscle bulk
- itching around the penis or vagina, or frequent episodes of thrush
- cuts or wounds that heal slowly
- blurred vision
Causes
When food is digested and enters your bloodstream, insulin moves glucose out of the blood and into cells, where it's broken down to produce energy.
However, if you have diabetes, your body is unable to break down glucose into energy. This is because there's either not enough insulin to move the glucose, or the insulin produced does not work properly.
The genetic risk for autoimmune T1D has been known for several decades, but genetics alone cannot explain why T1D presents in certain people but not others. Clearly, there are other factors. The environment also plays a significant role, with pollutants, diet, lifestyle, body habitus, and even psychological stress all being proposed as contributing to the risk of T1D. How environment works to induce T1D is also not known. Over the past 20 years, a phenomenon called epigenetics has been suggested as the primary mechanism by which the environment can impact autoimmune diseases such as T1D. Epigenetics thus provides an important link between genetic susceptibility and the environment in the development of autoimmune T1D.
Epigenetic modifications refer to alterations in gene expression without modification of the DNA sequence, by mechanisms including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and miRNA dysfunction. Epigenetic modifications play crucial roles in cell differentiation, development, and apoptosis, as well as cell function by regulating gene expression. Aberrant epigenetic modifications can activate and suppress genes in a dynamic manner to produce a disease in an otherwise previously healthy individual. Although advances in epigenetic analysis have enabled a better understanding of autoimmune T1D etiology, two characteristics of epigenetics may complicate our ability to utilize epigenetic methods to treat or diagnosis diseases. These are the propensity for epigenetics to be heritable and reversible. In other words, these must be taken into consideration when designing epigenetic therapies. Perhaps we do not wish for the changes we create to be vertically transmitted. Perhaps by epigenetic modification in one gene, we are curing one disease and introducing another. From a reversibility standpoint, how does one make an epigenetic therapy permanent and thereby curative. These are all questions that are unanswerable at the present time, based on our current understanding of the interaction between genetics, epigenetics, and the environment. Nevertheless, continued studies of epigenetic modifications in autoimmune T1D may potentially provide a powerful tool to predict, diagnose, treat, and prognosticate T1D in the future (Garyu JW, Meffre E, Cotsapas C, Herold KC (2016) Progress and challenges for treating type 1 diabetes. J Autoimmun 71:1–90
Living with diabetes
Living with diabetes means dealing with a disease that is difficult to integrate on a daily basis. Food disruptions, medication, lifestyle, diabetes requires a real awareness of all the moments to which the patient and those around them are associated.
If heredity is a determining factor in the onset of diabetes (whether it is type 1 or type 2 diabetes), there are other factors that come into play in the development of diabetes such as poor lifestyle, too much sedentary lifestyle and stress.
Thus, in a context of diabetic heredity, it is essential to be vigilant, to focus on physical activity and to have an excellent diet. In addition, awareness of the risks of developing diabetes is essential to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.
In reality, the mind is a key element in the development of the disease. Hence the importance for health professionals to communicate with patients at risk and to detect situations of denial and depression for patients already diagnosed.
Diabetic eye screening
Diabetes mellitus (SD) is a disease (to be exact, it is a group of diseases) characterized by an increase in blood glucose level or as the people say «high sugar» in the blood. The constantly high level of «sugar» in the blood leads to damage and impairment of the function of various organs, first of all these are the eyes, kidney nerves, blood vessels (small and large).
The prevalence of SD throughout the world and in our country is steadily increasing every year. Sedentary lifestyles and consequent obesity, high AD and hereditary predisposition (if close relatives-parents, brothers, sisters-diabetes) also contribute to the increase in morbidity.
It is important to know that the SD can appear unnoticed for a person, i.e. does not appear. Detection often happens accidentally (for example, during a medical examination or treatment for other reasons). In about 1/3 of diabetics, the first manifestations may be visual impairment.
Risk factors
- . Heredity
There are observations that type 1 diabetes is inherited with a 3-7% probability on the mother’s side and a 10% probability on the father’s side. If both parents are ill, the risk of the disease increases several times and amounts to 70 per cent. The second type of diabetes is inherited with a probability of 80% on both the maternal and paternal lines, and if both parents have insulin-independent diabetes, children are close to 100% likely to develop diabetes in adulthood. Well, in this case, doctors vary only the number of percent, the rest of them are united: heredity is the main factor in the emergence of diabetes.
- Obesity
From the point of view of the development of diabetes is particularly dangerous if the body mass index is more than 30 kg/m2 and obesity is abdominal, that is, the shape of the body takes the form of an apple. The circumference of the waist is important. The risk of diabetes mellitus increases with the circumference of the waist in men over 102 cm, in women over 88 cm. It turns out that wasp waist is not only a fashion statement, but also a sure way to protect yourself from diabetes. This factor, fortunately, can be neutralized if the person, aware of the full measure of danger, will fight with overweight (and win this fight).
- Pancreatic disease
Pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, diseases of other endocrine glands - all that provokes pancreatic dysfunction, contributes to the development of diabetes. By the way, often pancreatic injuries can contribute to the physical trauma.
- Viral infections
Our patients tell us that the quality of their interactions, our attention to detail and the efficiency of their visits mean health care like they've never experienced. See the stories of satisfied Mayo Clinic patients.