Diabetes Mellitus Literature Review

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 DIABETES MELLITUS

Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are common diseases that co-exist at a greater frequency than chance alone would predict. Hypertension in the diabetic patient markedly increases the risk of cardiac disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke etc. Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease that causes high blood sugar level (WHO,2014). In a healthy individual, the hormone called insulin which is produced by the ß-cells of the islets of langerhans is responsible for the regulating the sugar balance in the body but in diabetic patients, this regulatory mechanism is defective either due to defective insulin production or the body not responding to the insulin produced by the body(ADA,2014). In Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus, where is defective production of insulin and this type of DM is also called Type 1 DM. while in Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus, the body is not responsive to the insulin produced in the

This form of diabetes mellitus accounts for 5-10% of the cases of diabetes mellitus. Type 1diabetes is also called insulin-dependent diabetes. It was formally called juvenile-onset diabetes, because it often begins in childhood. It is an autoimmune condition. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is caused by the body attacking its own pancreas with antibodies and when this happens, the damaged pancreas doesn 't make the hormone, insulin. A number of medical risks are associated with type 1 diabetes and many of them originate from damage to the tiny blood vessels in human eyes and this is called diabetic retinopathy, nerves (diabetic neuropathy), and kidneys (diabetic nephropathy). It also increases the risk of heart diseases and stroke and the patients are also prone to other autoimmune diseases like: Graves’ disease, Addison’s disease, autoimmune hepatitis, myasthenia gravis, and pernicious