[Health in the 100-Year Life Era] Diabetes That Cannot Be Completely Cured, Carbohydrate Intake Should Be Reduced to Half of Total Calories

Failure to Control Blood Sugar Levels
Early Intervention Essential to Reduce Complications
Weight Loss and Dietary Management Required

In diabetes, "dang" refers to sugar-like substances, and "nyo" means urine. Put together, diabetes is a condition where sugar-like substances appear in the urine. In fact, when diabetes occurs, sugar is detected in the urine. With advances in medicine and technology, it is now known that diabetes is a condition where there is an excessive amount of glucose in the blood, so diabetes is diagnosed through blood tests.

The pancreas in our body produces a substance called insulin and sends it into the bloodstream. Insulin has several roles, one of the important ones being to remove glucose from the blood. If there is too much insulin, a low blood sugar condition called hypoglycemia occurs, and if insulin is insufficient, the glucose level in the blood becomes excessively high. Thus, diabetes occurs when there is a lack of insulin or when the body cannot properly use insulin.

If the high blood sugar condition persists for a long time, the large and small blood vessels through which blood flows become damaged. When blood vessels are damaged, complications can arise. In other words, diabetes can be understood as a condition where excessive sugar in the blood causes damage to blood vessels. The main complications of diabetes occur in areas of the body with many or important blood vessels, such as the kidneys, the retina of the eyes, the heart, and the brain's blood vessels.

The three main symptoms of diabetes are known to be eating a lot, drinking a lot of water, and urinating frequently. Along with these, weight loss is also a major symptom of diabetes. However, if these symptoms are felt, it means diabetes has progressed considerably. Early-stage diabetes usually has no symptoms. Diabetes must be well controlled from the early stages to reduce the risk of complications later. Ultimately, diabetes is diagnosed through blood tests before symptoms appear, which we refer to as screening.

There are cases where blood sugar is higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes, and cases where diabetes is diagnosed immediately. In any case, efforts must be made to lower blood sugar or prevent it from rising further. Among the efforts that can be made in daily life, the two most important are reducing body weight and controlling diet. Since reducing weight involves controlling diet, diet control is something everyone needs to pay attention to. The key to diet control is not eating excessively and, above all, reducing carbohydrates.

When explaining diet control methods to diabetes patients and talking about carbohydrates, some people often say, "I hardly eat carbohydrates." These individuals understand not eating carbohydrates as avoiding foods containing sugar or sweet fruits. Of course, foods high in sugar are important carbohydrates, but staple foods we regularly eat, such as rice, rice cakes, bread, and noodles, which contain starch, are also carbohydrate-centered foods. Typically, Koreans obtain about two-thirds of their total energy from carbohydrates, and reducing this proportion to some extent is the core of diabetes diet control. If the usual intake of about two-thirds is reduced to roughly half, it is considered good diet control.

Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for diabetes. To maintain an appropriate level of blood sugar, medication must be taken consistently, and regular check-ups are necessary. If treatment is stopped, some patients with severe diabetes may experience acute complications that become serious, so caution is required. It is also necessary to consult with a primary care physician about once a year to check whether complications in blood vessels have developed.

Ki-Young Son, Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.