Frequent Urination and Excessive Thirst All the Time
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People who frequently urinate are related to not only some normal physiological reactions like anxiety of taking an examination or pregnancy but also pathological diseases like bladder inflammation, kidney diseases, and diabetes. However, plus the excessive drinking of water caused by frequent thirst, you should be considered to have diabetes.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus refers to a metabolic disorder syndrome, caused by insufficient insulin secreted by the pancreas, which affects high blood sugar (glucose) as the major symptom. Normally, the pancreas secretes insulin to use or store the sugar and fat from your food. Little or no production of insulin leads to diabetes, presented by the chronic symptoms of polydipsia (increased thirst), polyphagia (extreme hunger), polyuria (frequent urination) and weight loss. Moreover, these symptoms are accompanied by high blood sugar and glucose in urine. Untreated diabetes can trigger systemic damage to the body, and some patients can’t be without insulin treatment for the rest of their lives.
1. Symptoms of diabetes
The deficiency of insulin leads to a series of other symptoms, caused by protein, fat, and electrolyte, such as:
• High blood sugar can increase the permeability of urine, inducing frequent urination and feeling thirsty that makes you drink more water than usual.
• The increasing catabolism of fat and imbalance metabolism of protein result in fatigue, weight loss and growth impairment in children.
• In order to compensate for the loss of sugar and maintain their physical activities, patients are always feeling hungry, then eat excessively and frequently.
Besides the above symptoms, patients may suffer from:
• Itchy skin, especially on the genitals.
• Aqueous humour and crystal osmotic changes, caused by a quick increase in blood glucose, leading to refractive changes and blurry vision.
• Most of the patients without any symptoms were diagnosed suffering from diabetes in a routine health examination or through the diagnosis of other diseases.
2. Indication of diabetes
Diabetes can induce certain acute conditions like hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and ketoacidosis. If these conditions do not receive emergency treatment, it’s likely that they aggravate chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure, diabetic retinopathy, and so on.
a) Diabetic retinopathy (a diabetes complication that affects eyes) : High blood-glucose can In the long-term damage the endothelium of retinal blood vessels and lead to blurry vision, even blindness. Normally, diabetic retinopathy occurs after ten years of suffering from diabetes, so patients should go to have their eyes checked regularly.
b) Chronic renal failure: Dubbed as diabetic kidney disease, can gradually worsen and lead to renal failure.
c) Diabetic feet: Diabetes can lead to a deficiency of blood supply to the feet causing symptoms such as a loss of feeling (numbness) including pain. It means that any foot injuries can’t be easily cured and might eventually lead to amputation.
d) Oral ulcer: Diabetic patients are more susceptible to get oral ulcers, and the risk in males is higher than in females. It has been found that diabetes can cause periodontal disease that leads to systemic toxicity, aggravating diabetic symptoms in turn. Oral ulcers can be attributed to high blood glucose that provides subgingival bacteria with rich nutrients to reproduce, resulting in blood vessel blockage in gingival tissues.
Diabetes types and causes
WHO (World Health Organisation) divides diabetes into four types: type 1 diabetes, types 2 diabetes, secondary diabetes, and gestational diabetes.
Each type of diabetes has similar symptoms, but their triggers differ in each group. The beta-cells in the pancreas reduce the production of insulin, which can lower the blood sugar level and prevent the development of hyperglycemia.
Cause of Type 1 diabetes
The explicit causes of type 1 diabetes are still unknown, but it is related to the immune system, which destroys the beta cells that can produce insulin in the pancreas.
Cause of Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is due to insulin resistance of tissue cells (the cells no longer combine with insulin, resulting in glucose that reduces cell entry and accumulates in the blood) and functional degeneration of the beta cell.
Cause of gestational diabetes
Similar to type 2 diabetes, the cause of gestational diabetes may be related to the insulin resistance, but this is caused by the hormone during pregnancy.
Treatment of diabetes
Diabetes patients must have a comprehensive treatment including：
• Comprehensive knowledge of diabetes mellitus
• Diet therapy
• Exercise therapy
• Drug therapy (oral antidiabetics and insulin)
• Blood glucose monitoring
The therapy of each patient is based on their disease state, living environment and age. And the principle of all types of diabetes treatment can’t replace healthy eating, physical activity, and the ability to control oneself.
At present, type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes can’t be completely cured, but their symptoms can be greatly controlled and alleviated by insulin discovered in 1921. For type 2 diabetic patients, the main treatment should be a combined diet with antidiabetics. The type 1 diabetic patients should accept the dietary therapy with insulin.
Diabetes diet guidelines
1. Nutritional control and appropriate exercise are the cornerstones of diabetes care. In addition, a good lifestyle and self-monitoring are necessary for diabetic patients to maintain normal blood sugar. Otherwise, you should have a positive attitude towards diabetic treatment and communicate with other diabetics.
2. What to do when you are hungry?
Diabetics can often feel hungry. When you choose food, pay attention to:
• Eat more staple foods
The staple foods are the most important resource of physical energy that sustains physical activity. Normally, patients with mild symptoms should take 300-400 grams and those with heavy symptoms over 500 grams.
• Take small and frequent meals
During the day, eat a small meal every 3 to 4 hours. In the evening, have a meal 1 to 2 hours before going to bed. This regular diet can effectively avoid high blood sugar after a meal and get rid of extreme hunger.
• Appropriate intake of meat and vegetables
Diabetes patients should avoid eating only vegetables because sometimes eating suitable meat and vegetables can relieve the symptoms. Especially pork and shrimp benefit from the slowing of gastric emptying, which shortens the time of feeling hungry. After meals, it helps to eat fruits with low sugar, so you stay full longer.
• Prepare some snacks
If diabetic patients are hungry between meals, try to eat some snacks such as biscuits, and sugary drinks.
How to prevent or ease diabetes?
If you had found that you have mild symptoms of diabetes, you should pay attention to diet, which helps you prevent diabetes or control the condition. Here will introduce the diet criteria for diabetic patients.
1) Maintain adequate weight and avoid overweight
2) Create a diet plan that you implement every day and that limits the amount of food.
3) Deep-fried foods or fatty foods like pork, chicken and duck skin should be avoided.
4) Limit the intake of salt and cholesterol from foods, such as some animal organs like liver and kidneys.
5) Cook with vegetable oil.
6) Choose to eat some high fibre foods like raw vegetables and fruits
7) The amount of high carbohydrate foods or desserts should be limited according to the diet.
8) Replace refined sugar with sugar substitutes.
9) Stop smoking to protect your feet (Diabetes can reduce the blood supply to your feet causing a loss of feeling when experiencing injuries.)
10) Grains, soya, mushrooms, pumpkin and bitter melon are suitable for diabetic patients.
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