Diabetes Mellitus type 2 Explained & Revealed

It started 3 weeks ago, when my father was diagnosed officially as to have Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 (DM). That is also after endless, persistent plead from me for him to do the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test in a clinic.

My father has a few symptoms which lead me to think of possibility of DM, namely, increased frequency of urination during night time, polyphagia, polydipsia, polyuria, easy fatiguability, and more prominently is the tingling and numbness of both feet that on examination has reduced vibration sensation on his big toes of both sides.

I have been explaining about DM just briefly here and there to my parents, everytime i got back home and when i have the chance.

Upon his diagnosis back then 3 weeks ago, my father is calm, and composed upon hearing the news. Although i can say he is quietly scared beneath him, but who don’t?

I suggest that the night of him got diagnosed, that me, and my parents go out and have a good dinner to mark the occassion, and then the golden question were given to me by my parents:

What exactly is Diabetes Mellitus anyway?

In the simplest word, it is the inefficiency of the body to maintain sugar in the blood below the normal level.

In a simple, but more accurate albeit a bit difficult term to understand is, for DM type 2: Reduced sensitivity of insulin at the receptor level.

Then, at that time, i thought of a Metaphor for DM type 2:

Blood Sugar Control Department of The Human Body Factory

1) Normal Situation & Functioning

Let’s imagine that our body is a factory which has several departments.

There is one department in the factory with the purpose of controlling sugar in the blood and the have 200 workers.

All these workers stand by the side of a long tube in a long queue, side by side.

The long tube contains blood which is essential in our body

In this factory, there is a Department Supervisor

On the picture above, the workers are the black round shape, with the tube containing the blood, and the Department Supervisor is the blue-coloured box

All the worker is able to take the sugar from the blood and put it away to reduce the amount of sugar inside the blood in order to maintain blood sugar is in safe level, but will do so only under the command of the Department Supervisor.

The Department Supervisor is able to give command to the workers only through SMS using his handphone, since everyone cannot talk inside the factory.

All of the workers have their own handphone in which they will receive the SMS and will take out the sugar from the blood accordingly.

So, whenever there is rise of blood sugar, the Department Supervisor will send out more sms, that lead to the workers to take out more blood sugar to maintain it in safe level.

Whenever the blood sugar is low, the department supervisor will stop sending SMS, and there is another department that can increase blood sugar to maintain it in safe level.

Just take an arbitrary level, safe is 3-10, remember this is only creation not the level for the real one, too low, the factory can be suddenly shut down altogether, too high can cause damage to many other departments in the factory including this department that we are speaking of.

2) In Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Due to many reasons, our Blood Sugar Control Department has been slowly faltering after 30-40 years of functioning, the reasons which i wont discuss now.

This is only in DM type 2, where the fault is in the handphone of the majority of ther workers, which has broken.

The Department Supervisor send out SMS as usual, but the workers can’t receive the SMS, thus they cannot take out the sugar from the blood, causing sugar in the blood to be high.

Usually in DM type 2, out of 200 workers, 150 of them will have their handphone broken. Thus, what would happen? High blood sugar!

No matter how hard the Department Supervisor tried to send out more and more SMS, it can only be received by 50 workers!

So what if the blood sugar is high?

This high blood sugar slowly over time will damage the department of pumping of the blood which is the heart, the department of vision which is the eye, and even would damage the Chairman and Board of Directors of the factory which is the brain!

What happen next?

Naturally, these 50 workers soon will either become too tired or their handphone will not be functioning either broken or has not enough memory to store the SMS. Then the blood sugar will become really high.

What follows, the Department Supervisor will not able to sufficiently send out SMS due to run out credit/ if he is using postpaid, the credit limit will be reached, or simply his finger is being too painful to send SMS.

Then the blood sugar will be really really high! The Damage would extend to all part of the factory, damaging and destroying department of walking which is the leg & feet plus many more!

So better watch out!

3) The Metaphor explained.

The Factory is the Human Body.

The Department is the group of cells and organ which works to control the blood sugar in the blood.

Blood sugar is actually to be accurate is Blood Glucose.

The Department Supervisor is Pancreas, to be exact is the beta cells of the Langerhans cell of the Endocrine portion of Pancreas.

The SMS is the Insulin. Yes, the insulin is merely a messenger/message conveyed by the Langerhans cell of Pancreas to all the cells which has the handphone to receive it

The handphone is the Insulin Receptor, which is in the possesion of the certain muscle and cells which has it, which called The Workers.

4) Understanding Diabtes Mellitus.

DM type 2: The Reduced Insulin Sensitivity toward Insulin = 150 out of 200 handphone broken causing only 50 workers to receive the SMS, thus leading to high blood sugar.

then what is type 1?

DM type 1: Autoimmune destruction of beta cell of Langerhans cell of Pancreas = using the same metaphor, it is the problem of the Department Supervisor is dead altogether killed by some workers from other department (the army), leading to inability for SMS to be received by the workers = High Blood Sugar!

5) Treating Diabtes Mellitus.

Using this metaphor in mind, you can easily understand the method of treatment for Diabetes Mellitus!

Diet Control, Oral Anti-diabetic Agent (oral hypoglycemics), and insulin therapy

I let you all to work out it yourself for this one okay! i’ll write about it when i got the chance!