Diabetology & Endocrinology Treatment Center Antigua

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder in which your body can not produce insulin or can not properly use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone produced by your pancreas.

Insulin plays an important role by regulating the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. A person’s blood sugar must be properly regulated to ensure that the body functions within normal parameters. A sharp increase in blood sugar can cause damage to organs, blood vessels, and nerves. Your body also needs insulin in order to convert sugar for use as energy.

Types of diabetes

There are three major types of diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is the most common diagnosis, followed by Type 1 Diabetes. The third, Gestational Diabetes occurs during pregnancy, and is usually temporary. However they are other specific types of diabetes resulting from specific genetic syndromes, drugs, malnutrition, infections, and other illnesses.  If your family has a history of Diabetes, it is important to have regular checkups which can identify Prediabetes, another important diagnosis, that indicates an elevated risk of developing diabetes.

What is Endocrinology?

Endocrinology is a field that categorises hormonal disorders. Regular checkups are key to diagnose and the hormonal symptoms and identify treatment complications that result from them.

Hormones regulate metabolism, breathing, development, reproduction, sensory perception and movement. Hormone imbalances are at the core of a wide variety of medical conditions. 

Endocrinology focuses on both the hormones and the various glands and tissues that contain and produce them.

Endocrine disorders are typically grouped into two categories:

• Endocrine disease that results when a gland produces too much or too little of an endocrine hormone, called a hormone imbalance.
• Endocrine disease due to the development of lesions (such as nodules or tumors) in the endocrine system, which may or may not affect hormone levels.

What can Endocrine dysfunction cause?

Here is a list of issues cause by endocrine dysfunction:

• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Menopause
• Metabolic disorders
• Thyroid diseases
• Excessive or insufficient production of hormones
• Some cancers
• Short stature
• Infertility

A family doctor may refer a patient to an endocrinologist if they suspect that a hormone problem is the underlying cause of a health problem.

For all your endocrine problems Bowen Medical is here for you.