Review of Diabetes Mellitus - Essay Example

Diabetes is a third leading cause of death in United States of America, next only to heart disease and cancer. In the present article, the clinical presentation, diagnosis, evaluation, current treatment modalities with specific emphasis on the newer therapeutic approaches for diabetes will be reviewed. Introduction. The condition called “Diabetes” is so prevalent in modern day societies that it would be impossible to find a person who does not know some one with this condition. Statistics of diabetes confirm this validity of this statement.

An estimated 20.8 million people, constituting about 7% of the population, live with diabetes in United States (CDC report, 2007). The question arises why is diabetes a bane of the modern society. The answer to this query lies in a large number of epidemiological studies showing that obesity and sedentary life style is a risk factor for developing diabetes. Individuals with a good Basal Metabolic Index (BMI, less than 21) have the lowest risk of diabetes occurring to them and increasing incidence of the condition seen in obese people (Coditz, 1990; Carey, 1997).

Similarly there is an inverse correlation between the level of physical activity and the risk of developing diabetes (Manson, 1991,1992). In order to understand the clinical presentation of diabetes mellitus, diagnosis, and therapeutic options it is imperative to understand the regulation of Glucose levels (or Homeostasis) in normal human beings (Figure 1). Many diseases result from the perturbation of the homeostasis, a condition known as homeostatic imbalance. Several factors including aging lead to the loss of this regulation leading to disease.

Diabetes is also a chronic metabolic disorder caused by the disturbance in the homeostasis of glucose. Classification of diabetes mellitus. As per the American Diabetes Association publication (ADA report, 2006) vast majority