Hormones

Sometime between the ages of 45 and 55, often earlier for diabetics, the last hormonal roller coaster ride in a woman's life begins, caused by the menopause. For type-1 and also type-2 diabetic women, this means that a phase of restlessness awaits them once again. Many factors come together: The calorie requirement decreases, and with the same amount of food, women therefore gain weight, which promotes insulin resistance. Since visceral fat in particular grows and the vascular protective oestrogen says goodbye at the same time, the risk of heart attacks and strokes increases significantly for diabetic women who are already at risk. The hormonal fluctuations associated with the menopause cause an alternation of very high values from time to time and a tendency to severe hypoglycaemia. Because menopausal symptoms with hot flushes can manifest themselves in a similar way with hypoglycaemia, women can easily confuse the causes. For diabetics with pronounced menopausal symptoms, hormone preparations, preferably in the form of patches or gels, bring more calm to the blood sugar.

Young people with type 1 diabetes have a harder time than healthy teenagers. Simply partying all night, drinking lots of alcohol, enjoying the dolce vita, doing sports to the hilt - with all this, the diabetics among the young people always have to pay very close attention to their diabetes, and often enough they don't feel like it at all. Sometimes they get into a phase in which they ignore their diabetes, they don't care how high their values are. Eating disorders, which often occur during adolescence, are also more common among diabetics than among the average healthy teenager. The constant pressure to watch what they eat and the possibility of easily losing weight by skipping insulin injections at the cost of high levels encourage various eating disorders. More than usual, teenagers with diabetes are therefore dependent on at least one diabetes-experienced adult. In addition to the diabetology practice, this can also be an experienced PTA or a pharmacist.

PTAs and pharmacists have many talking points with diabetics. They should use them, but not interfere therapeutically. This boundary between pharmaceutical knowledge and medical action must also be observed in the case of the chronic mass disease diabetes.