My understanding is that before diabetes was treatable, people tended to be diagnosed after having had it uncontrolled for years. Generally diagnosed when they fell into a coma. Diabetes, I believe, is called "the silent killer" because it can lurk making things progressively worse without anyone noticing. This is why there were so many pushes for routine diabetes screening.
A friend of my brother's was diagnosed with diabetes when he gave a blood sample to help a friend of his practice running the test (his friend was a doctor but fairly new and testing some new equipment).
So, while rapid death is pretty much the norm, I think we're not looking at the right starting point. But yes, type 1 diabetes is pretty incredibly nasty. Any form of diabetes is nasty if not treated properly, but type II is treated by dietary changes and doesn't absolutely require modern technology.
What fascinates me though is the link to cold. Because multiple sclerosis, another autoimmune disorder but with a very different M.O., is also linked to colder climates.
I keep trying to poke at diabetes to learn something useful. I feel there must be information in there somewhere, if I could just find it. But, alas, it eludes me - not surprisingly. But the doctors don't really understand diabetes. I found that out early into my searches. They say that glucose build-up causes the symptoms. They say they know this because diabetes affects the glucose levels, so it must be the glucose.
And maybe it is. Maybe the glucose is directly causing the problems. But it doesn't help me figure out how you can get the exact same effects with completely normal glucose levels and insulin response. They don't have an answer for that.
*sighs* It probably is the glucose. There are probably just multiple things that can cause the same effect. But I'm still going to try to dissect diabetes and make it give me its secrets.
no subject
A friend of my brother's was diagnosed with diabetes when he gave a blood sample to help a friend of his practice running the test (his friend was a doctor but fairly new and testing some new equipment).
So, while rapid death is pretty much the norm, I think we're not looking at the right starting point. But yes, type 1 diabetes is pretty incredibly nasty. Any form of diabetes is nasty if not treated properly, but type II is treated by dietary changes and doesn't absolutely require modern technology.
What fascinates me though is the link to cold. Because multiple sclerosis, another autoimmune disorder but with a very different M.O., is also linked to colder climates.
I keep trying to poke at diabetes to learn something useful. I feel there must be information in there somewhere, if I could just find it. But, alas, it eludes me - not surprisingly. But the doctors don't really understand diabetes. I found that out early into my searches. They say that glucose build-up causes the symptoms. They say they know this because diabetes affects the glucose levels, so it must be the glucose.
And maybe it is. Maybe the glucose is directly causing the problems. But it doesn't help me figure out how you can get the exact same effects with completely normal glucose levels and insulin response. They don't have an answer for that.
*sighs* It probably is the glucose. There are probably just multiple things that can cause the same effect. But I'm still going to try to dissect diabetes and make it give me its secrets.