Late-onset diabetes: what is it?

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Late-onset diabetes, also known as type II diabetes, is a condition where the body develops resistance to insulin, making it difficult to process dietary sugar. It can be managed with diet, exercise, and medication, and is less severe than type I diabetes. Risk factors include being overweight and lack of exercise. It cannot be reversed, but steps can be taken to reduce the risk or control high blood sugar. Symptoms include fatigue, thirst, frequent urination, and blurred vision.

Late-onset diabetes is a medical condition characterized by difficulty processing dietary sugar due to the development of resistance in the body to insulin, the hormone involved in glucose metabolism. It is part of a family of conditions known colloquially as “diabetes” and is the most common form of diabetes, occurring anytime during adulthood. It is also known as adult-onset, age-onset, non-insulin-dependent or type II diabetes. Patients with this condition may be able to manage it with diet and exercise alone, and in other cases, medications are needed to address the problem.

Two different phenomena can occur in patients with late-onset diabetes. One is that the pancreas may fail to produce insulin in the required amounts, leading to a difficulty with glucose processing. The body can also become resistant to insulin. If the body is producing enough, the patient has difficulty using the hormone effectively. This leads to an increase in blood sugar over time and can cause complications such as neuropathy and hypertension.

This form of diabetes is less severe than type I diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes. Especially if caught early, it can be very manageable and the risk of complications such as vision loss for the patient is greatly reduced. In patients who cannot adequately control their diabetes, they may need to take insulin injections, belying the name “non-insulin-dependent diabetes,” and other medications may also be used in managing the condition, depending on the symptoms the patients experience. patients.

People at risk of developing late-onset diabetes are mainly older adults who are overweight and lack adequate exercise. People with this condition may develop symptoms such as fatigue, thirst, frequent urination, and blurred vision. Medical evaluation will reveal an increase in blood sugar, indicative of diabetes. Depending on how high the patient’s blood sugar is and what complications have developed, treatment can range from relatively conservative measures to more aggressive measures, with the goal of controlling and limiting the damage within the patient’s body.

After people develop late-onset diabetes, they cannot reverse the condition. There are steps people can take to reduce their risk of developing it or to get high blood sugar under control before full-blown diabetes develops. If a doctor finds late-onset diabetes to be a problem, blood work may be used to check for signs of pre-diabetes, in which blood sugar begins to rise and the patient begins to experience symptoms.




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