Scientists
said that diabetes is five different types of diseases and each may be treated
differently.
Diabetes is
basically a disease identified as 'unregulated blood sugar' and is usually
divided into two parts - type 1 and type 2.
However,
researchers from Sweden and Finland think that they have found a more complex
image related to diabetes, and this may result in the treatment of individual
people for the treatment of this disease.
Experts say,
this study may introduce a new era in the future of diabetes treatment, but it
may take more time to change the course of ongoing treatment.
One in every
11 people in the world is suffering from diabetes - and once affected, the risk
of heart attack, stroke or brain bleeding, blindness, kidney failure, and limbs
cut-off may increase.
Type 1
diabetes is a disease related to human immunity. It attacks beta cells or the body's
ability to build insulin, so there is not enough production of this hormone
necessary to control blood sugar or sugar levels.
On the other
hand, type 2 is considered as a disease related to uncontrolled lifestyle,
where excess fat in the body inhibits insulin activity.
The latest
study on diabetes was conducted by Sweden’s Lund University Diabetes Center and
Finland's Institute for Molecular Medicine. In this study, 14,775 patients were
monitored, their detailed analysis of blood was done.
Research
results were published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. It has been shown
that diabetes patients can be divided into five specific clusters.
Cluster 1 -
It is a type-1 autoimmune diabetes, which affects people only when they are
young and they feel healthy to see. Insulin is not produced in the body of
these diabetes patients.
Cluster 2 -
They are the patients of insulin-deficient diabetes who initially feel like
cluster 1 patients. They are young, their weight is controlled, but are
struggling to produce insulin - although there is no defect in their immune
system.
Cluster 3 -
They are severe insulin-resistant diabetes patients, who are usually extra fat.
They produce insulin in the body, but their body does not respond to the
insulin.
Cluster 4 -
It is related to weight-related light-type diabetes, which can be found in obese
people. Such people are closer to normal people than cluster 3 types people in
metabolism.
Cluster 5 - age-related
light-type diabetes, which affects older people. That means these patients are
older than other groups, but their diabetes levels are lower.
One of the
researchers, Prof Leif Group told the BBC, "It is very important, we are
stepping forward to give patients the most appropriate medicines."
He said that
three types of diabetes are severe, it can be treated more strongly than other
two types of diabetes. Cluster-2 patients can now be identified as type 2
because they do not have autoimmune diseases.
In the
study, however, it is found that the reason for their disease is probably a
fault in their beta-cell – not because they are too fat. And they should be
treated like patients who are now identified as type 1.
Cluster 2
patients have the highest risk of blindness, and cluster 3 patients are more
prone to the risk of kidney related diseases - as a result, more testing may
benefit patients of several clusters.
The better
classification
The Imperial
College's Consultant and Clinical Scientist Victoria Salem said that most
experts knew that diabetes is classified as "type 1" and "type
2" in this two divisions "it is not very correct".
He told the BBC,
"There is no doubt that this research will help how we think about
diabetes in future." But he also cautioned that there would be no change
in today's treatment of diabetes.
This
research has been done in Scandinavia. On the other hand, the risk of diabetes
is different in different countries of the world. In South Asia, the risk of
the disease is relatively high.
Dr. Salem
said, "There are still many things unknown, maybe there are 500 types of
sub-groups of diabetes around the world due to genes and local
environments." "The researchers have found five clusters in the
analysis, but this number may increase," said the scientist.
Dr. Emily
Burns of Diabetes UK said “if you understand the disease properly, it can help
in treating the patients separately and reduce the risk of future diabetes
complications".
Source of
Info: bbc.com/bengali
