Herbal medicine and diabetes mellitus – Part 3

Syndrome X, a precursor of diabetes mellitus

Syndrome X is a collection of problems caused by the presence of consistently high levels of insulin in the blood steam.

This condition is also known as insulin resistance.

The following are features of the adverse effects of elevated insulin level in the body: hypertension, low HDL (good) cholesterol, high LDL (bad) cholesterol, high triglycerides, increased incidences of blood clots, increased rate of inflammation of the arteries and development of central obesity (weight gain, mainly around the lower abdomen, giving an apple appearance.

The propensity of developing heart disease is very high when all these conditions are present in an individual.

Even if for this reason only, every effort must be made to reverse this condition.

A patient who has Syndrome X may continue in this condition for upwards of twenty years.

However, a time will eventually come when the beta cells of the pancreas will begin to fail irreversibly as a result of exhaustion; the beta cells just wear out and are no longer able to produce enough insulin to deal with the excessive blood glucose.

At this time the blood level of insulin begins to fall while that of glucose starts to rise.

This condition appropriately referred to, as pre-clinical diabetes mellitus will lead to full blown diabetes in less than 2 years if nothing is done to reverse it.

Signs and symptoms

There are certain classical symptoms of diabetes mellitus, which aid in diagnosis even though a few cases may be asymptomatic.

These symptoms include polyuria (urinating excessively), polydipsia (drinking of plenty of water in response to too much thirst), polyphagia (eating excessively as a result of hunger) and nocturia, which is the tendency to urinate more than once or twice at night.

Other symptoms are blurred vision, high blood pressure, loss of sensation in the extremes of the limbs and loss of weight.

Fungal infections and other skin diseases may be a feature of diabetes mellitus.

Diagnosis of diabetes mellitus

In making a diagnosis of diabetes a good history must be obtained from the patient.

Family history of diabetes, especially in the case of direct relations such as a mother and daughter, is a strong risk factor.

The nature of the diet that the patient likes and is used to is another factor.

As I said, our diet is the high carbohydrate, starchy and high fat diet with high glycaemic indices.

This is usually a common finding among patients that are eventually found to be diabetics.

Finding the classical symptoms in the history of a patient is usually a clincher of the diagnosis.

Having done that, a good physical examination may confirm such signs as hypertension, exudates in the retina, loss of sensation at the extremities, loss of weight and/or wasting of the muscles and fungal infection and other skin diseases.

Most important investigations that are usually carried out to establish a diagnosis of diabetes are fasting blood sugar, Glucose Tolerance Test and Lipid profile.

These may show such findings as hyperglycaemia, otherwise known as high blood glucose level.

There may also be increased triglyceride (the other fat in the body apart from cholesterol), increased LDL, (bad) cholesterol and decreased HDL (good) cholesterol, blood levels.

Diabetes Mellitus, as I have already defined it, is a chronic, debilitating metabolic disorder caused by failure of insulin to pump glucose into the cells of the body.

The failure can be at the level of the cells where the cells do not respond to insulin by opening the door through which glucose passes into the cells.

Insulin failure can also be due to complete or partial failure of the beta cells of the pancreas, with the result that there is no insulin or not enough in circulation.

According to the International Diabetic Federation (IDF), approximately 194 million people are affected by diabetes all over the world and this is expected to rise to 333 million in 25 years and this is 6.3 per cent of the world population.

In Africa, Nigeria is the country with the highest number of cases of diabetes.

Out of approximately 13.6 million diabetics, Nigeria accounts for about 1.218 million.

The increase in the number of cases is thought to be due to factors such as lack of exercise, eating the wrong diet, obesity and improvement in awareness and methods of diagnosis whereby more cases are being diagnosed today, contrary to what it used to be.