KatCarney

Body The Invisible Killer

In the summer of 2002, Heather, a 47-year-old solicitor, began to suffer from severe heart palpitations. 'My heart was beating at 122 beats a minute instead of 60-something,' she recalls. In addition, she had become increasingly concerned about a gentle 'furring' over her body and had been rapidly losing weight. The initial diagnosis confirmed Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) " caused by an imbalance of hormones leading to growths in her ovaries and hirsutism " and a severe thyroid complaint. But it was the later diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes that came as a shock.

Diabetes Week begins tomorrow. According to the health charity Diabetes UK, there are an estimated one million people in the UK who are living undiagnosed with the condition on top of the 1.8 million of us (around three in every 100 people) currently receiving treatment. Yet the ignorance that surrounds diabetes is astounding, not to mention a source of great frustration to sufferers " consider the case of the UK man who was unable to board his long-haul flight earlier this year because the small packet of needles he was carrying to inject his insulin was deemed a security threat.

Diabetes is defined as having too much sugar (glucose) in the blood. Following digestion, glucose enters the blood and insulin is then produced, which removes glucose from the bloodstream and turns it into fuel for the body. People with diabetes either do not have enough insulin or the insulin is not being used efficiently, so the glucose remains in the blood.

But hands up who knows that Type 1 diabetes is a sudden-onset disease, occurring most often in young people, caused by an immune attack on the islet (insulin-producing) cells in the pancreas, that leaves the sufferer insulin dependent for life, whereas Type 2 comes on gradually and is insulin resistant (meaning the body generally still produces the hormone but can't use it correctly)?

It's not as if the condition has gone unreported. On the contrary, there are plenty of headlines about Type 2 and its links to the sedentary western lifestyle (typical sufferers are heavy, particularly around the midriff " the classic apple-shaped physique). And this attention is entirely called for: as Dr Ralph Abraham, consultant diabetologist at the clinic, London Medical London Diabetes, says, Type 2 accounts for 85 per cent of 'a growing epidemic' worldwide.

Type 2 is a genetic condition, most often prevalent in people over 40. 'You can be very, very overweight and very inactive,' Dr Abraham notes, 'but if you were born with the right genotype then you won't get the disease.' And, contrary to prevailing beliefs, Type 2 isn't solely the preserve of the overweight, fast-food- munching hordes. Better understanding of diabetes' many intricacies have lead to increasing numbers of cases of what Abraham calls 'atypical diabetes' being diagnosed, in which symptoms fall outside those that traditionally classify the condition " patients well under 40 showing symptoms of Type 2, for example.

Indeed, Heather's symptoms were far from usual for Type 2 and her lifestyle. 'I'm quite small and I eat a fairly healthy diet,' she says. Diabetes couldn't have been further from her mind, and it was only after diagnosis that she remembered her mother had also been diagnosed with Type 2 years before.

Associated illnesses are not unusual in diabetics. You may be aware that the condition can lead to blurred vision and, eventually, blindness if left untreated, but as Abraham points out, 'there isn't a cell in the body that isn't malfunctioning because they're all swimming in a sea of glucose.' Kidney failure, impotence, PCOS and other hormonal imbalances are also common related conditions. But, notes Abraham, 'Its real impact on the health service is heart disease.' Indeed, the risk of someone with diabetes having a heart attack matches that of first-time cardiac-arrest survivors. (And according to the American Heart Association, 14 per cent of patients who survive their first heart attack have another within a year, so it's a significant danger.)

Heather now urges people to have their blood sugar levels regularly checked and 'would counsel anyone to have a full check-up once they hit 40'. Sage advice. But perhaps most important of all is for people to properly become aware of the full scope of the disease.

Diabetes Week runs this Monday to Saturday. For further information visit www.diabetes.org.uk . London Medical London Diabetes, tel: 020 7467 5470 or visit www.londondiabetes.com

Story from REDNOVA NEWS:
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