Suddenly one feels weight loss and does not know what to attribute it.Some people will be glad, but others will feel a strange sensation.Something seems not at all right.
To do?Go to the doctor, of course.One of the possible diagnoses is type 1 diabetes mellitus, which affects many teenagers.
What happens in diabetes is that the pancreas does not produce enough insulin and that makes glucose increase.To compensate for this problem, the affected must be injected insulin several times a day, measure the glucose regularly and carry a healthy diet that must stick to certain parameters.
At the beginning of insulin therapy, many type 1 diabetics increase weight.For many adolescents the effects can be uncomfortable, especially because before diagnosis they lost weight and, suddenly, by incanding treatment, they see how their silhouette changes and cannot feel good about themselves.
The danger involved in this collateral effect is that teenagers with diabetes begin to present eating disorders as a way to compensate for the weight gain of treatment.
Women are more affected by this phenomenon than men and can fall into bulimia.Some people undergo radical diets, others cause vomiting or go to sports at an excessive degree.
There are also those who do what is known as "insulin purge", which consists in applying minor doses of insulin on an ongoing weight.
What happens in these cases is that patients automatically have low insulin values and that, in turn, increases the blood glucose level.It is true, patients lose weight in the short term and have the feeling that they can regulate their figure, but the risk of diabetes derived diseases if the indicated treatment is not followed is serious.
It is known that the consequences can range from neurological and nephrological damage to blindness or a lower life expectancy.
Eating disorders affect almost twice adolescents with type 1 diabetes than adolescents who do not present this health inconvenience.Disorders can manifest in the form of a bulimia, anorexia or insulin purge.
This risk is also seen in overweight women with type 2 diabetes, which can have uncontrolled hunger attacks.This in turn derives in a weight gain that leads to insulin being less effective.
It is not always easy to detect eating disorders, especially in puberty.But it is good that parents are attentive.If young people do not want to share meals with the family and, in addition, there are very noticeable variations of glucose values, it is an alert signal.
In those cases, it is recommended that parents inform the doctor, but do not do it behind the affected.
The best help that can be offered to someone who suffers from diabetes and eating disorders is a psychotherapy that aims to revalue the image that the patient has of himself, both intellectual and physical.