STORY OF DIABETES!!

Human body is a marvellous creation. The most perfect combination of parts ever made.

But , Sometimes these parts fail...

What goes wrong? Why do we retain sugars? Why do we develop Diabetes?

Some say karma! Some say eating wrong! Lot of fat!

What exactly goes on???

Let us go through the whole process as a story....

Once upon a time there lived a young man called Ramu. Ramu was a hard working and honest man. He used to work for long hours. He leaves for office by 7 a.m, work the whole day and return at 9 p.m. On the way back he never used to forget to get flowers for his little girl Meena and his wife Parvathy. Lovely family I would say!  Now let’s have a look and find out what is happening inside Mr.Ramu’s body.

Scene -1: Dining table

Ramu sits for his quick breakfast at 6.45am. Parvathy is busy taking out hot idlis from the cooker. He calls out parvathy and there comes the hot idlis with delicious coconut chutney. Idlis are so soft and fluffy that Ramu wants to relish his breakfast and compliment his wife, but...... It’s time to go....Duty calling!

He gulps in four idlis and rushes off to office...

Scene -2: Inside Ramu’s system

The idlis reach the stomach. They are broken down to smaller pieces. Enzymes and acids produced by Ramu’s stomach reaches the idlis in their little buggies. They work on those idlis and cut them into smaller and smaller particles. The final outcome of those four idlis is carbohydrate. Carbohydrates, as we all know form the major source of energy for our body. These need to be absorbed, stored and utilized. The gate keeper cells lining the stomach understand that an important event has occurred. These cells send a message to Pancreas. Why pancreas you may ask? Pancreas secretes a hormone called insulin. Pancreas is made up of special cells called Beta cells. They secrete the hormone insulin. Once carbohydrates are formed the insulin will be secreted by pancreas. The insulin directs the carbohydrate into each and every cell of the body including our muscle and liver cells. In the muscle cells these carbohydrates are burnt to give out calories. Excess of carbohydrates are processed and packaged as Glycogen for future use. Phatak..... Insulin reaches the designated spot and escorts Carbohydrates to the muscle cell. Under the effect of insulin the doors (what we call as receptors) in the muscle cells are wide open to accept the incoming carbohydrates. This process goes on and on and on.....

Scene 3: - Few years later......

As years pass by Ramu is given more responsibilities. He is made a team leader with lot of young talented youth waiting eagerly to be trained by him. As the stress and responsibilities increase the once cheerful Ramu has now become a more timid man. Advances in technology have now made his work easier. He now gets the job done over phone and email. As his job demands now Ramu learns to use computers. Now most of the job at office happens via computers. He being a perfectionist spends long hours sitting in front of his desktop and chalking out the future of the company. The company is doing well under his leadership. How does Ramu look now with all the stress strain and sedentary life? Well he has put on weight around the tummy, become bald, dark circles under the eye and has elevated blood pressure.

Scene 4: - Dining table

As per routine Ramu comes to breakfast table at 6.45a.m and yells for his breakfast (he has been having a bad temper lately owing to his Hypertension). Parvathy hurriedly brings 2 idlis (number of idlis are reduced due to increased weight and coconut chutney has been cut off from  the menu due to high cholesterols). Ramu is in no mood to appreciate his wife’s dedication or to rejoice the pleasure of eating. Mechanically he finishes off the idlis and rushes to office. 

Scene 5:- Inside Ramu’s system again...

Idlis are there waiting to be acted upon by the enzymes and acids. The buggies arrive later than usual. Off late the digestive capacities have come down because of obesity. Lazily the enzymes and acids start to work up the idlis. Slowly the idlis are broken down to relieve carbohydrates from the idlis. The cells in the stomach lining respond by sending a message to Pancreas. Pancreas activates its Beta cells to send out insulin. Due to combination of factors like obesity, lack of exercise the amount of insulin needed by the body now increases dramatically. With this increase in demand the beta cells are overworked to maintain the balance between demand and supply.... secondly because of obesity the body develops something called Insulin Resistance (IR). In simple terms IR means the body shows a sluggish response to insulin. (This lack of cell response to insulin is called Insulin resistance – Hallmark of Diabetes).  These factors become more dominant in patients who have a family history of Diabetes Mellitus. The body now requires more number of insulin molecules to transport carbohydrates. Overworked beta cells slowly begin to lose the battle. They die off slowly. As the numbers of Beta cells come down, insulin produced is also less. (This is the second component leading to Diabetes - Decreased insulin production by pancreas).  This results in an imbalance. The insulin molecules produced are not enough to match the number of carbohydrate molecules in the blood. So, Carbohydrate builds up in the system, leading to what we all know as high sugar or Diabetes.

Scene 6:- Ramu in Distress

Mr.Ramu starts to lose weight. May be stress?? His sleep is getting disturbed... he has to get up in the middle of the night to pass urine. He thinks age is catching up. His hunger has gone up. He feels hungry more than usual. The two idlis are no more enough for him. He starts ordering snacks along with tea during the break time but, even that is not enough. Ramu is totally worried not knowing what is going on. He is eating more than usual but still feels hungry (Polyphagia). He gets up multiple times to pass urine. (Polyuria) and he is always thirsty (Polydipsia). Even a small scratch takes longer time to heal (Delayed wound healing). Apart from this he ends up with cold and fever quite often. The thing which perplexes him is that now he requires stronger antibiotics to handle simple infections. Finally after lot of persuasion he does what he should have done much before.... Consulting a Doctor...! The Doctor advises a simple blood test and it gives the answer – TYPE 2 DIABETES.

Okay , Now let’s analyze ...

Type 2 Diabetes generally results when there is lack of insulin or when the insulin resistance predominates or a combination of both. This Character Mr.Ramu is the common man, the one with whom we can relate easily. He is a normal person with routine working pattern like most of us. The stress he goes though is something which we see around us every day. This story is to explain why and how diabetes develops. To put it in simple terms the overworked pancreas finally becomes tired and is not able to produce enough insulin required to manage the carbohydrate inflow. Add on to this is the problem of insulin resistance where the available insulin is not allowed to work to its full potential. A combination of these factors along with stress, obesity, Hypertension, family history , physical activity and eating habits leads to development of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

This is my maiden effort to explain facts in the form of a story. If this story had made you “Yawn” well....... all I can say is I’m sorry...Will try to do better next time.. Like always your comments will boost me to do better...