Diabetes And Hormones What You Should Know!

Dr Rajeswari Janakiraman explains how Diabetes and hormones affect each other.

- Dr Rajeswari Janakiraman

According to the International Diabetes Federation, 69.1 million cases of Diabetes were reported in India in 2015. Diabetes is a very complex medical condition that begins as a combination of hormonal and nutritional imbalances. If these imbalances are not corrected at an early stage, a person with early symptoms of Diabetes can develop complications of the heart, kidney, eyes and feet.

According to a study conducted by International Diabetes Federation (IDF), up to 70 per cent of Type 2 Diabetes cases can be prevented or delayed if the prediabetes stage is managed properly. This can be done by adopting healthy lifestyle and precautionary measures to avert hormonal imbalance.

Therefore, it is essential to understand how hormones affect the blood glucose levels in the body to control the consequences of further hormonal imbalance.

The hormone link

A hormone is a substance secreted by our glands which is then circulated in our blood to regulate a particular bodily system or behaviour. For example, the food we eat, which is mostly sugar and starch, gets converted into glucose which is then transformed into energy by insulin. However, when a person has Diabetes the body either does not produce enough insulin or the produced insulin is unable to convert glucose into energy. This leads to higher glucose levels in the body resulting in complications related to Diabetes.

Insulin imbalance or insulin resistance can also be a result of other hormonal imbalances. Since, all the hormones human body work together and affect each other, any sort of imbalance in any hormone can lead to insulin imbalance.

For instance, during pre-menopause, the levels of progesterone in the female body decline affecting the insulin action. Lower level of progesterone can result in developing a predisposition to high blood glucose levels or hyperglycaemia.