Diabetes in the UK

Diabetes in the UK

Synopsis:

Diabetes has recently become a focal point of health care systems around the world due to its high prevalence and the severity of secondary complications caused by the disease. Over the course of my project on diabetes, I have had the opportunity to speak with a group of diabetics to understand from a patient’s perspective how diabetes is managed in a rural community. While I found that while some patients ignored treatment and refused to make any dietary changes, the majority of the patients I interviewed were well-informed and actively managing diabetes in their everyday life.

Background on Diabetes:

Throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, between 2 and 3 of every 100 people have a known form of diabetes (DTC, 2004). What is diabetes? Explained simply, it is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. In the normal state of glucose function, there is a stable release and uptake of glucose, regulated by two hormones produced in the pancreas, glucagon and insulin. There are two distinct mechanisms which give rise to the abnormal blood glucose levels seen in patients with type I and type II diabetes. In type I diabetes, a deficiency in insulin production at the pancreas results in elevated blood glucose levels due to the lack of hormonal regulation. In type II diabetes, although the pancreas produces regular levels of insulin, the body resists the effect of insulin, inhibiting the ability of insulin to break down glucose in the blood. Because of the inherent differences in the biochemical mechanisms of these two diseases, the characteristics associated with type I and type II diabetes are very different. The typical onset of type I diabetes is usually ...

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...gnosed with diabetes, with an estimated further 1 million people remaining undiagnosed, and by 2010 this number is predicted to more than double to 3 million (Department of Health, 2001). Clearly, diabetes is a disease that will inevitably pose huge economic burdens for nationalized health service in the future. I hope that with the increase in diabetes and complications associated with the disease will not prevent the NHS from continuing to provide the kind of comprehensive support that I hope someday my own country will emulate.

Works Cited:

DTC Primary Care Training Center. 2004. Diabetes Management in Primary Care (a handbook), West Yorkshire

Department of Health. 2001. National service framework for diabetes: standards. London: HMSO

Frooqui, A. and Vora, J. 2004. The changing role of primary care in the management of diabetes. Prescriber, 19: 11-21