Lifestyle changes are essential to prevent the progression of the condition.
Dr. José García Mateo, past president of the Puerto Rican Society of Endocrinology and Diabetology. Photo: Journal of Medicine and Public Health. Fabiola Plaza.
In an exclusive interview with the Journal of Medicine and Public Healththe past president of the Puerto Rican Society of Endocrinology and Diabetology, Dr. Jose Garcia Mateoindicated that it is possible that the patient with type 2 diabetes has gone through a pre-diabetes process, a fact that stands out, because it considers it important to make the diagnosis at this stage for the benefit of the patient to avoid the development of diabetes. condition.
“We talk about intervention in the lifestyle changes and some medications where we can prevent diabetes, studies indicate that if there are changes in lifestyle, the probability of developing diabetes is reduced by 58 percent,” said the specialist, who emphasized that this can only happen if the patient is in the of prediabetes.
In this sense, the Dr. Garcia Mateo specified that walking every day for 30 minutes, improving and changing nutritional habits supervised by a nutritionist and step slower between seven and ten percent, are key factors to improve the body’s response.
He indicated that type 2 diabetes does have genetic traits that affect the development of this condition, especially when it is from the first-line family history, dad, mom, siblings. “Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance, and it is the one with the largest number of patients in the world, reaching approximately 90 percent, unlike type 1 diabetes, which only affects 10 percent.”
He recalled that the type 2 diabetic patient is the one who has this resistance to insulin, and that they passed the pre-diabetic stage, because the resistance is already so great that the cells of the pancreas (Beta), that the body cannot produce insulin adequately to counteract this resistance and the patient falls into diabetes.
“And when the patient is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he has lost, according to studies, fifty to eighty percent of insulin secretion,” he said. Contrary to type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune condition, where antibodies are produced that go to the cells of the pancreas (beta) causing apoptosis and the patient cannot secrete insulin, and they need to take insulin.
The specialist indicated that diabetics do not present symptoms, but when they already have symptoms such as constant urge to urinate, with great thirst, blurred vision and weight loss, which means that they are glucotoxic symptoms and the patient needs immediate attention.
He remembered that the Puerto Ricans have a higher prevalence than other races to have diabetes, which puts him between 16 and 17 percent more than other people of non-Hispanic race, “and many statistics take northern towns, so possibly that is much higher. The Hispanic origin has mixture of different races like the indigenous and African, which can increase the risk of insulin resistance. Also, that the Hispanic diet is high in carbohydrates, and you tell them not to eat a pionono or a cake at Christmas, because one as a specialist You have to seek to change lifestyles”.
Dr. García Mateo highlighted the importance of monitoring the patient once it is diagnosed, as a result of the multiple complications that can occur due to diabetes, among which cardiovascular problems and diabetic foot stand out.
“There are many people who do not know, so it is important to inform, not only among doctors, but in patients with associated conditions, they have to seek help, even sedentary patients. They must also pay attention,” he stressed.
Finally, he recalled that to have diabetes you have to have problems with insulin, mostly insulin insufficiency or insulin resistance, that is, the body cannot use glucose properly.
“Insulin is a hormone that works like a key to help the body get glucose into the body, so if glucose stays in the body without performing its function, it causes complications in proteins and tissues, both microvascular and macrovascular” , ended.
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