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Controlling Diabetes – Fulfilling Dreams
The literal translation sounds like something out of a fairy tale – “honey-sweet flow”. But diabetes mellitus is anything but harmless. It is a chronic, incurable disease that occurs in two forms. In type 1 diabetes an autoimmune disorder destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Without the hormone insulin, the sugar in food cannot be transported into the body’s cells. Instead it circulates round the body in the blood and attacks the blood vessels. Patients with type 1 diabetes have no alternative to injecting insulin.
Type 2 diabetes, formerly also referred to as adult-onset diabetes, is triggered by a hereditary predisposition, obesity and too little exercise, and it is becoming increasingly common among adolescents. The cells in the body are no longer able to take up the glucose from the blood fast enough. But if glucose remains in the blood for too long it causes major damage: loss of vision, impaired kidney function and poor circulation in the extremities which may even require limbs to be amputated. As with type 1 diabetes, too much glucose in the blood encourages hardening of the arteries and increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
But nowadays people with diabetes no longer have to feel chained down by their condition. Medical progress has allowed diabetics to live an active life full of sports, fun and spontaneity. And without fear.
Research and development work carried out by Bayer HealthCare has made a major contribution to making life easier for diabetic patients. In the past few decades the company has developed active substances that enable diabetes to be managed effectively. The latest studies have shown that these substances can even have a preventive effect in individuals with certain metabolic features. In diagnostics, too, Bayer HealthCare has set standards; it introduced urinalysis tests over 60 years ago, and since then has developed a string of innovations for diabetic patients. One of these innovations was the first ever portable blood glucose measuring device, launched in 1969. Bayer HealthCare markets blood glucose monitoring products and services worldwide, ranging from meters, the corresponding sensors, lancing devices, lancets and software for physicians and patients to services such as training for specialist circles.
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