Diabetology

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Diabetology deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus. Diabetologists are actually specialists in internal medicine (internists) who have completed additional training in diabetology.

Diabetes mellitus can come in different forms. The most important are type 1 and type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. All forms of diabetes are based on a deficiency or ineffectiveness of the blood sugar-lowering hormone insulin. That is why diabetes also falls under the field of endocrinology - the specialty for hormone-related diseases.

Diabetologists in hospitals mostly treat patients who have been diagnosed with diabetes beforehand (for example by a family doctor). Your task (especially at the beginning) is therefore to inform the patient about the disease and to create an individual treatment plan. This depends on the one hand on the type of diabetes and on the other hand on individual factors (e.g. severity of the illness, exercise and eating habits of the patient).

In general, the treatment of diabetes is based on general measures (proper nutrition, sufficient exercise, etc.) as well as medication (oral blood sugar lowering drugs or insulin injections).

In addition, diabetologists monitor and treat complications and secondary diseases of diabetes. Complications are, for example, hypoglycaemia and hypoglycaemia. Examples of secondary diseases are diabetic foot syndrome, diabetic kidney damage (diabetic nephropathy), diabetic retinal damage (diabetic retinopathy) and diabetes-related nerve damage (polyneuropathy).

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