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Katie Wright Mr. Lund English 2 Period 2 2 February 2012 Research Paper: Diabetes Diabetes is a condition where the body is not able to regulate glucose levels in the blood. This results in having too much glucose in your blood stream. Diabetes is diagnosed if your glucose level is higher than 126mg/dL (Diabetes Forecast Magazine). Levels between 100-126 mg/dL are referred to as impaired fasting glucose or pre-diabetes (Diabetes Forecast Magazine). Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and is used to help control high glucose levels (NIDDK). Glucose enters the bloodstream when food is digested and the cells use glucose to produce energy. Diabetes affects more than 24 million Americans (A.D.A.M). Scientists and experts have found some cures, but they are not 100% accurate. There are different tests and you can take to see if you have diabetes. Also, there are different treatments and meal plans you can take to help you maintain control of your diabetes. There are different types of diabetes: Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood (A.D.A.M). Many patients are diagnosed when they are older than age 20 (A.D.A.M). In this disease, the body makes little or no insulin. Daily injections of insulin are needed (A.D.A.M). The exact cause is unknown. Type 2 Diabetes is far more common than type 1 (A.D.A.M). It makes up most of diabetes cases. It usually occurs in adulthood, but young people are increasingly being diagnosed with this disease (A.D.A.M). The pancreas does not make enough insulin to keep blood glucose levels normal, often because

Wright 2 the body does not respond well to insulin (A.D.A.M). Many people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have it, although it is a serious condition (A.D.A.M). Type 2 Diabetes is becoming more common due to increasing obesity and failure to exercise (A.D.A.M). Gestational Diabetes is high blood glucose that develops at any time during pregnancy in a woman who does not have diabetes (A.D.A.M). Women who have gestational diabetes are at high risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life (A.D.A.M). To find out if you have diabetes, there are several tests you can take. They are: the Oral glucose test, the Hemoglobin A1c test and a (non-fasting) Blood Glucose Level test (A.D.A.M.). Also the Fasting Plasma Glucose test (FPG) is the preferred method for diagnosing diabetes (Web MD). The Oral Glucose test is commonly used for diagnosing gestational diabetes (Web MD). With an Oral Glucose test, the person fasts overnight for at least 8 hours (Web MD). Hemoglobin is a substance within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body. When your diabetes is not controlled (meaning that your blood sugar is too high), sugar builds up in your blood and combines with your hemoglobin, becoming "glycated" (Web MD). The Hemoglobin A1c test is an important blood test used to determine how well your diabetes is being controlled (Web MD). Hemoglobin A1c provides an average of your blood sugar control over a six to 12 week period (Web MD). For people without diabetes, the normal range for the Hemoglobin A1c test is between 4% and 6% (Web MD). The Fasting Plasma Glucose test is the preferred test for diagnosing diabetes and is most reliable when done in the morning. If your fasting glucose level is 100 to 125 mg/dL, you have a form of pre-diabetes called impaired fasting glucose (IFG), meaning that you are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes (Web MD). A level of 126 mg/dL or above, confirmed by repeating the test on another day, means that you have diabetes (Web MD).

Wright 3 Diabetic neuropathies are a family of nerve disorders caused by diabetes (NIDDK). There are different types of neuropathies: Peripheral neuropathy, Autonomic neuropathy, Proximal neuropathy, and Focal neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage in the arms and legs (NIDDK). Your feet and legs are likely to be affected before your hands and arms (NIDDK). Many people with diabetes have signs of neuropathy that a doctor could note but feel no symptoms themselves (NIDDK). Peripheral neuropathy affects your toes, feet, legs, hands and arms (NIDDK). Autonomic neuropathy affects the nerves that control the heart, regulate blood pressure, and control blood glucose levels (NIDDK). Autonomic neuropathy affects heart and blood vessels, digestive system, urinary tract, sex organs, sweat glands, eyes and lungs (NIDDK). Proximal neuropathy starts with pain in the thighs, hips, buttocks, or legs, usually on one side of the body (NIDDK). This type of neuropathy is more common in those with type 2 diabetes and in older adults with diabetes (NIDDK). Proximal neuropathy causes weakness in the legs and the inability to go from a sitting to a standing position without help (NIDDK). The length of the recovery period varies, depending on the type of nerve damage (NIDDK). Focal neuropathy appears suddenly and affects specific nerves, most often in the head, torso, or leg (NIDDK). Focal neuropathy is painful and unpredictable and occurs most often in older adults with diabetes (NIDDK). However, it tends to improve by itself over weeks or months and does not cause long-term damage (NIDDK).

Too often, people newly diagnosed with diabetes are told they need to develop better eating habits without being given specific information about how to do it on a day-to-dayor meal-to-mealbasis (Diabetes Forecast Magazine). There are 5 easy steps to help you maintain a healthy diabetic diet: visualize your plate, count your carbs, watch your portion sizes, Consider nutrition and keep learning. The first thing is to visualize your plate. Its pretty

Wright 4 simple: Fill half of your plate with non-starchy vegetables like broccoli; fill a quarter of your plate with lean meat; and cover the final quarter of your plate with grains or corn. On the side, you can also have a serving of low-fat dairy or soymilk and a serving of fruit (Diabetes Forecast Magazine). The second thing is to count your carbs. Following the plate method is a good way to learn how to balance your diet, but many people who take insulin use another tool: carbohydrate counting. Foods like crackers, oatmeal, apples, and bread all contain carbohydrates, one of your bodys main energy sources (Diabetes Forecast Magazine). The third thing is to watch your portion sizes. The key to keeping a healthy diet is watching what you eat. The fourth thing is to consider nutrition. Whichever meal-planning tools you use, keep in mind the basic nutrition recommendations that all Americans should follow. Whole grains and fruits are better than fruit juice (Diabetes Forecast Magazine). The last thing is to keep learning. The exchange system, for example, helps people balance their diet by controlling the number of carbohydrates as well as calories in a meal. Foods are grouped into categories with similar nutrient contentsuch as starches, carbohydrates, non-starchy veggies, fruits, fats, and meat. Within each group, you can exchange one item for another because all foods have roughly equal carbs, fat, protein, and calories (Diabetes Forecast Magazine).

In December, 2007 a very enticing study out of Toronto University was published in the medical journal Cell and spread like wildfire across the internet as an article titled "A Cure for Diabetes May be Close!" (Toronto University). The original article was nothing less than incredible. It described how lab mice that had been given type 1 diabetes were cured within 24 hours of receiving an injection of capsaicin, (the main active compound in chili peppers); the capsaicin was injected directly into the pancreas (Toronto University). As a result of the capsaicin injection, the mice started to produce insulin (type 1 diabetics do not produce

Wright 5 insulin). Upon further research scientists confirmed that the nerves surrounding insulinproducing islets secrete neuropeptides, and are crucial to the proper functioning of the islets. Researchers were able to prove that in the diabetic mice and rodents, they were not producing enough of the neuropeptides and it caused stress on the insulin producing islets (Toronto University). So researchers neuropeptide named substance p was injected into the cells of the pancreas. The inflammation caused by the lack of insulin disappeared and the mice and rodents were diabetic free. Some of the lab mice and rodents remained diabetic free for at least four months after being given only one injection. This study was directed more towards type 2 diabetics; however, the study of neuropeptides implicated that type 2 diabetes was simply a component of type 1 diabetes, meaning that the treatment could possibly work for both type 1 and type 2 diabetics.

Wright 6 Works Cited Page Source A: Diabetes Forecast Magazine Source B: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/neuropathies/ Source C: New York Times Magazine; American Diabetes Association Diabetes Care 2010; 1997- 2008 A.D.A.M., Inc. Source D: Toronto University; Cell December 2007 A Cure For Diabetes May Be Close! http://www.informationaboutdiabetes.com/news/diabetes-research/is-a-cure-fordiabetes-within-reach-part-1 Source E: Web MD; Diabetes Testing http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/diagnosing-type-2-diabetes