Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1. INTRODUCTION
Blood glucose is one of the simplest physiological measures that can be
determined easily, using simple hand-held devices or advanced clinical ana-
lyses. It plays a significant role in the maintenance of a healthy body and also
in preventing many chronic diseases. Maintaining healthy and normal blood
glucose levels is important for avoiding cardiovascular diseases and obesity.
The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and obesity results in the develop-
ment of hyperglycemia or high blood glucose. One of the major health
problems associated with uncontrolled blood glucose levels is diabetes
mellitus. There are different types of diabetes such as type 1, type 2, and ges-
tational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune condition
leading to defects in the insulin-secreting pancreatic
b
-cells resulting in
the inability of the body to secrete sufficient amount of insulin (
Diabetes
UK, 2013a
). On the other hand, type 2 diabetes develops due to the inability
of the body to use the insulin produced by the pancreas effectively to manage
the increase in blood glucose levels (
Diabetes UK, 2013b
)
. This condition
can be exacerbated by poor diet, low physical activity, and genetic factors.
Type 2 diabetes is a major health problem, not only in developed countries
but also in developing countries all over the world due to changes in diet and
lifestyle. Gestational diabetes is the type of diabetes that occurs in women
during either the second or third trimester of pregnancy or becomes evident
in the early stages of pregnancy because of its undetected existence before
pregnancy (
Diabetes UK, 2013c
)
. In addition to these three types of diabe-
tes, there is an emerging condition called prediabetes that is increasing in
prevalence worldwide. Prediabetes is also known as impaired glucose toler-
ance or impaired fasting glucose, the condition in which the blood glucose
levels are not high enough to be categorized as type 2 diabetes, but if left
uncontrolled may progress to type 2 diabetes
(
Diabetes UK, 2013d
).
According to the International Diabetes Federation, there are around
371 million diabetic people worldwide (
Diabetes Atlas, 2012
)
. This num-
ber has been showing an increasing trend and furthermore there are a num-
ber of people undiagnosed for diabetes worldwide. A good majority of
people with diabetes are living in low- andmiddle-income countries where
the diet is not monitored or controlled to maintain a normal blood glucose
level. Diabetes can result in a number of complications affecting several
organs in the body (
Table 5.1
). Poor blood glucose control can also lead
to psychological problems such as depression and impaired cognitive func-
