Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases with characteristic hyperglycemia associated with defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. There are several different types of diabetes.

Type 1 (Insulin-dependent) is due to beta cell destruction, usually leading to absolute insulin deficiency.

Persons with diabetes experience significant illness and even death from a variety of long term effects of elevated blood glucose levels. This is related to the damage of blood vessels in important organs such as the heart, eye, and kidney.

The aim of diabetes care is to maximize quality and length of life by:

• providing education and training to manage the disease and its treatment
  
• developing an understanding to facilitate coping with new challenges
  
• controlling the risk of damage to the eye, kidney, foot and arterial circulation
  
• early detection and management of any complications of diabetes
  

Treatment for anyone with diabetes must include reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, especially control of blood pressure, cessation of smoking, and correction of cholesterol and lipid abnormalities. Diet, exercise, and weight control are the cornerstone of management, especially of type 2 diabetes.

Get the Facts... With your MediFocus Guide

The Medifocus Guide on Diabetes provides answers to the following important questions and medical issues:

• What are the most common symptoms of Diabetes?
  
• Are there any recognized risk factors for developing Diabetes?
  
• What kinds of medical tests are used to establish the diagnosis of Diabetes?
  
• What is the current standard of care for the treatment of Diabetes?
  
• What treatment options are available for the management of Diabetes?
  
• Are there any promising new developments or potential breakthroughs in treatment?
  
• Who are the most notable medical authorities who specialize in Diabetes?
  
• Where are the leading hospitals and centers of research for Diabetes?
  
• What are the most important questions to ask my doctor about Diabetes?
  

What Your Doctor Reads:

This MediFocus Guide contains an extensive listing of citations and abstracts of recent journal articles that have been published about this condition in trustworthy medical journals. This is the same type of information that is available to physicians and other health care professionals. A partial selection of journal articles that are abstracted in this MediFocus Guide includes:

• The predicaments of "dangerous safety": living with juvenile diabetes in 20th century America.
  Western Journal of Medicine. 2000
• Retinopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes 4 years after intensive therapy.
  Archives of Ophthalmology. 2000
• Chronic sorrow in parents of children with newly diagnosed diabetes: a review of the literature and discussion of the implications for nursing practice.
  Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2000
• Consequences of the diabetic status on the oxidant/antioxidant balance.
  Diabetes & Metabolism. 2000
• Pancreas and islet transplantation for patients with diabetes.
  Diabetes Care. 2000
• Hypertension and diabetes: new therapeutic options.
  Archives of Internal Medicine. 2000
• The diabetic patient with renal failure.
  Nefrologia. 2000
• New developments in type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes.
  Clinical Pediatrics. 2000
• Detection and management of diabetic glomerulopathy in children and adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: need for improved knowledge and better care.
  Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2000
• Radicals and oxidative stress in diabetes.
  Diabetic Medicine. 2000

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