What causes diabetes. Why the deep understanding of the cause of diabetes is important?
Answering the question what causes diabetes researchers attract attention to the fact that diabetes is a chronic polyetiologic disease. The basic characteristics of diabetes are absolute and relative deficiency of insulin as well as metabolic disorders of carbohydrate metabolism with hyperglycemia and glycosuria, as well as protein and fat catabolism. The level of glucose in blood of the patients with diabetes on an empty stomach is more than 7.2 mmol/l, and in double-ply examination it is 120 mg %.
Diabetes etiology
Speaking about the cause of diabetes doctors point out to hereditary predisposition, autoimmune and vascular abnormalities, obesity, mental and physical traumas, and viral infections.
Monozygotic twins should be included in the group of diabetes risk; if one of them is ill with diabetes, another must be examined for the disease. Women who gave birth to big fetuses also belong to the risk group.
According to the statistical data, diabetes is transmitted hereditarily in about 25 % of patients. In some families practically all members, such as parents, children, brothers, and sisters may fall ill with diabetes. In these people congenital deficiency of pancreatic islets producing insulin may become the cause of diabetes.
Among the external factors that may become one of the cause of diabetes the first place belongs to a long-term overeating and excessive consumption of products rich in carbohydrates.
Quite often the diabetes is associated with obesity, which to some extent may be considered as the cause of diabetes. This point of view confirms the hypothesis of the harm produced by overeating because the excessive consumption of foods, which does not correspond to energy demands and expenses of the organism, lies in the basis of obesity. The most harmful effect results from the surfeit of the products containing large amounts of sugary substances.
Among the factors influencing upon the development of the disease and which may also be considered as the cause of diabetes an important role is played by such mental conditions as anxiety, fear, the stress caused by death of relatives or other troubles as well as a long-term mental overstrain. Frequently the first symptoms of diabetes arise after acute, strong mental trauma, which, as a matter of fact, becomes the cause of diabetes. In this case it is rather difficult to find precisely the cause of diabetes: it may be the consequence of a mental suffering, or the disease had been developing in the latent form. In the post-war years the doctors observed the sharp increase in diabetes incidence. In fact, during the war people remained in the states of constant mental and nutritional tension, which were conditioned by the continuous strain of the central nervous system, as well as by the malnutrition.
As a result of the infectious diseases such as quinsy, flu, etc., a toxic infectious affection of pancreatic islets may occur and later it may become the cause of diabetes. However, in this case it is impossible to exclude the probability of the initial insufficiency of pancreatic islets in the latent form as the cause of diabetes.
It is rather difficult to reveal the cause of diabetes with absolute accuracy. In most cases it is possible to determine the cause of diabetes only supposedly and sometimes the cause of diabetes remains obscure.
Diabetes is diagnosed among all groups of the population irrespective of social factors. On the average 2-4 % of the world population suffer from diabetes. Thus, in the USA death rate from this disease occupies the eighth place in comparison with the other conditions. Many patients with diabetes suffer from heart attack, blindness, atherosclerosis of the lower extremity arteries, pyelonephritis, and urolithiasis. If these diseases develop against the background of diabetes they may take severe and unfavorable course.