Detecting and treating diabetes at an early stage prevents diseases such as stroke.
Insulin resistance often goes unnoticed for a long time - but there are early warning signals.
Until the first diagnosis of diabetes, those affected live with undiscovered diabetes mellitus for about eight years, as the German Diabetes Aid informs. This harbors dangers, since an untreated diabetes can lead to a number of health problems. According to the Techniker Krankenkasse, the most common secondary diseases include coronary heart disease, stroke, arterial occlusive disease, diseases of the eyes, kidneys and nerves.
Every third to fourth diabetic is also affected by diabetic foot syndrome
, which can be accompanied by numbness or tingling in the feet, increased callus formation and burning pain, especially at night.
95 percent of the currently around eight million diabetes patients in Germany have type 2 diabetes, as the German Diabetes Aid informs.
The starting point for type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance
.
In this case, body cells respond less well to the hormone insulin, which takes on important tasks in the sugar metabolism.
It docks to receptors on the surface of the body's cells and promotes the uptake of glucose (grape sugar) from the blood vessels into the cells.
As a result, the blood sugar level drops, as the portal Diabetes Ratgeber further informs.
If there is insulin resistance, the blood sugar level rises because the cells can absorb less sugar from food.
Type 2 diabetes can develop as a result.
The following factors promote insulin resistance:
Hereditary disposition
Obesity, especially in the form of belly fat
Sedentary lifestyle
chronic stress
too little sleep / light
unhealthy diet
Recognize insulin resistance: Obtain check-ups with your doctor
The tricky thing is that insulin resistance usually goes unnoticed at first. The first signs are chronically high blood sugar and insulin levels, as the Association for Nutritional Therapy and Prevention (FETeV) informs. But only a doctor can determine blood sugar and insulin values. Symptoms of insulin resistance are mostly unspecific, as the Norddeutsche Rundfunk writes:
General malaise and fatigue are the first signs that the food energy in the form of carbohydrates is not reaching the body cells because of insulin resistance.
Especially in this prediabetes stage, however, the chance of a cure is still excellent. Later, when the diagnosis of “type 2 diabetes” is made, there are often consequential damage to the cardiovascular system.
For this reason, you should make regular check-ups with your doctor and, especially
if you have a genetic predisposition or other diabetes risk factors mentioned above
, you should be examined for insulin resistance.
(jg)
More sources: https://www.diabetes-ratgeber.net/Insulin/Insulinresistenz-27674.html;
https://www.diabetesde.org/ueber_diabetes/;
https://www.tk.de/techniker/gesundheit-und-medizin/
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