MD Geo

Diabetes is a serious disease that, without proper treatment, can cause heart disease, blindness, impotence, or even amputations. This type of diabetes occurs in young children, adolescents and young adults, rarely in older people. It is currently impossible to prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes. In most cases, the cells that produce insulin are destroyed by the immune system. The combination of genetic and environmental factors contribute to this destruction. At present, researchers do not understand why insulin-producing cells are destroyed, or how the destruction process is triggered. In addition, it is unclear why this event occurs at ages as different. Governments, associations involved in the fight against diabetes and pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars in research each year to better understand the type 1 diabetes.

Factors contributing to its development are known: age, heredity, overweight and physical inactivity. In addition, some studies suggest that diets rich in fat could also be a risk factor. However, nobody is really immune to diabetes, even with a healthy daily habits.

We do know that some populations are more at risk than others. Indigenous peoples, Hispanic American, Asian and African populations seem to develop the disease more than others.

Approximately 80% of people with type 2 diabetes were overweight or obese. This condition is a major risk factor in the onset of the disease as insidious as serious. Symptoms of this type of diabetes can be so minimal that the diagnosis can take up to seven years before being laid, diagnosis often falls after the event of a complication related to diabetes: major infection in the foot, eye hemorrhage, heart attack or stroke.