What is brittle diabetes?
Brittle diabetes is diabetes that is particularly difficult to control.
Brittle diabetes is diabetes that is particularly difficult to control, also known as “unstable” diabetes. Brittle means “unstable” or “prone to change”.
If you have brittle diabetes, your blood sugar may go up and down.
Brittle diabetes is mainly associated with type 1 diabetes, which is not a separate form of diabetes, but more of a complication or subset of the disease.
Causes and symptoms
If not managed properly, any diabetes can be unstable, so the diagnosis of brittle diabetes can be tricky. There are many possible causes for dramatic fluctuations in blood glucose levels.
- Not taking medications or testing blood glucose as required;
- Stress;
- Eating disorders;
- Difficulty absorbing nutrients from the intestines;
- Celiac disease;
- gastroparesis (a state that slows or even prevents the elimination of food from the stomach into the intestines);
- Abnormal sensitivity to insulin.
Usually, it can be caused by one or more things. In many cases, the doctor does not know exactly what is causing the problem.
Patients will have different symptoms depending on how much their blood sugar fluctuates. “Very low blood glucose levels” are defined as blood glucose below 70 mg/dl, and symptoms include:
- Feeling weak;
- Stress or anxiety;
- Sweating and chills;
- Irritability;
- Fuzzy consciousness;
- Rapid heartbeat;
- Dizziness;
- nausea;
- blurred vision;
- weakness;
- Headache;
- Spasms;
- Unconsciousness.
When blood glucose levels exceed 200 mg/dl, symptoms may include:
- Frequent urination;
- extreme thirst;
- blurred vision;
- Fatigue;
- Headache.
If left untreated, hyperglycemia may progress to a more serious condition, ketoacidosis, when elevated concentrations of ketotoxins can be detected in the blood and urine, with manifestations including:
- A foul odor on the breath that resembles the smell of rotten apples;
- nausea and vomiting;
- Shortness of breath;
- weakness and weakness;
- Fuzzy consciousness;
- abdominal pain;
- Coma.
People with the disease?
Brittle diabetes is uncommon, with a prevalence of about 3/1000 in people who use insulin.
People of all ages can develop brittle diabetes, with women being slightly more likely than men to develop it. If hypoglycemia occurs frequently, the chances of developing the disease are increased. The more frequent the episodes of hypoglycemia, the more likely they are to go unnoticed, which can make the episodes worse and lead to fragile diabetes.
Living with the disease
Brittle diabetes can disrupt daily life. Patients cannot predict when they will need to treat high and low blood glucose, hospitalization becomes the norm, and it is difficult to live a normal work life.
Brittle diabetes can also be fatal.
In order to treat, doctors first learn the patient’s immediate blood glucose level to closely manage the diabetes, and new technologies and insulin-controlled treatment options may make it easier to manage the diabetes condition. Treatment options include:
- Insulin pump: A small device that is carried around all day to allow for steady regulation of insulin.
- Islet transplantation: replacing a patient’s with cells from a donor’s pancreas that produce insulin, often from the pancreas of a deceased donor.
Doctors will choose an appropriate treatment plan based on the cause of the disease. Once the appropriate treatment plan is chosen, it is important to strive for the best possible outcome:
- Exercise;
- Following nutritional guidelines;
- Adherence to medication schedules;
- Most importantly, always stay in touch with your diabetes treatment team to get the medical and emotional support you need.