Anatomy Journal - Final

“Coping Mechanisms of Diabetes Mellitus Patients” A. R. Jacalne, A. Sagucio, H. J. Sanchez, A. J. Tan, J. P. Valera

Introduction Many restaurants and fast-food chains nowadays introduce products that contain low sugar or no sugar at all. Also, there are many advertisements that promote healthy lifestyle and wellness. Some manufacturing companies even prefer to produce goods that are sugar-free and those that ease the problems of some patients who suffer from imbalances in their sugar-level. But despite all of these circumstances, diabetes is still one of the most leading causes of death, not only in the Philippines but also worldwide. What are the factors that cause the increasing number of people being inflicted by diabetes? Why is this continuously happening? What are the methods needed to be done in order to decrease the number of diabetic patients? What should diabetic patients consider or follow to be able to cope up with their condition? Should this condition hinder the diabetic patient’s relationship or connection to the environment, specifically their interpersonal relationship? When doctors say “diabetes” they usually mean “diabetes mellitus”. Diabetes mellitus results when pancreatic beta cells (which are found in the islet of Langerhans) are unable to maintain adequate insulin secretion to prevent hyperglycemia. A combination of genetic and environmental factors causes the underlying beta-cell failure.

More than 150 million people in the world have diabetes, the occurrence of which is increasing so rapidly that the management of diabetes is a priority in all branches of medicine. The new therapies and rapidly evolving evidence are making us all re-examine our practice. We can no longer be one-dimensional "sugar doctors" but, instead, must address the three dimensions of cardiovascular risk prevention: glycemia, lipid levels, and blood pressure. So many factors, due to the dynamic change in the medical field, are needed to be studied to be able to treat diabetes but still end up not knowing the complete “panacea” which could put an end to this disease and stop the increasing number of people inflicted by this disease. In the end the saying, “prevention is better than cure” is still the best preventing factor to for this disease. In the study conducted by Nathan (2002), he concluded that “…Although effective treatments to reduce the long-term complications of diabetes are available, the complex interventions required and the size of the diabetic population have made the application of such therapies problematic. The treatment of patients with diabetes of relatively recent onset should include lifestyle interventions to address hyperglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.” He added, however, that If such interventions do not achieve the aims established by controlled clinical trials, “[he] recommend accelerated implementation of the known effective treatments.”

Nathan (2002) also stated that “if after a three-to-six-month program of diet and increased exercise, glycosylated hemoglobin values are not less than 7 percent, medications should be added. One could consider using metformin as a first agent, since it is less likely to cause weight gain.” The addition of insulin or other injected medications should be considered. Renewed or continued attention to lifestyle adjustments should be encouraged at every step of diabetes intervention to try to limit the weight gain that accompanies treatment with most of the medications. As stated by Nathan (2002) in his report, the guidelines are supported by credible and outstanding data gathered from different and comprehensive clinical trials while others are studied by using persons that are not afflicted by the disease which is caused by the excess carbohydrates in the body and the inability to oxidize carbohydrates— diabetes mellitus. Some of these guidelines are supported by excellent-quality data from clinical trials, whereas others are based on extrapolation from studies in persons without diabetes or epidemiologic data. Their implementation should not be delayed, even though the data to support them remain incomplete. According to Robbins (1957), diabetes mellitus is a disease of middle and late life, although an appreciable number of cases begin in childhood.

There is a definite female preponderance or superiority which becomes more marked with advancing age, so that in the sixth decade of life, the ratio of females to males is 3 to 1. Organs involved during the infliction of diabetes mellitus (in Layman’s term, is the excess carbohydrates in the body and also the inability of the body to oxidize carbohydrates) in an organism are the pancreas, mainly the beta cells in islets of Langerhans which elaborate insulin, second organ is the anterior pituitary which has an important diabetogenic action and the third organ is adrenal cortex which also asserts a diabetogenic effect (Robbins, 1957). The main objective of this study, which is why it was being studied, is to introduce the readers of this research the effects of diabetes mellitus to people afflicted by this disease involving excesses of carbohydrates. This research also shows how our respondents cope with their disease and how diabetes mellitus affect the respondents’ interpersonal relationship.

Methods Materials Respondents: A total of twenty (20) selected diabetes mellitus respondents were chosen to be part of this study. The researchers made sure of their condition by conducting initial interviews before the actual survey procedures. The range of the respondents’ age is from 15 to 70 yrs. old and all residing in Central Luzon. The researchers also carefully controlled the gender of the respondents wherein there was an even distribution between the male and female to avoid inequalities on the outcome of the study. Questionnaire: The twenty (20) respondents were requested to answer the survey form prepared by the researchers, which comprises two parts: the first part was the coping strategies that the respondents perform to deal with their condition. They were asked to indicate the kind of medicine, and lifestyle they apply in their lives. The second part comprises the effects of the respondents’ condition in their interpersonal relationship. Instrument Used: The instrument used mainly in this research is the selected survey method. This method was chosen in order to gather fast and credible information from randomly chosen respondents within a short period of time. The researchers formulated the set of questions pre-tested to a Biochemistry and English professors.

Books, journals, magazines, newspaper articles, electronic references and other relevant studies were also used as reference to support the presiding topic.

Procedures This study has introduced different coping mechanisms or strategies exhibited by the selected respondents. This study also introduced how diabetes mellitus affects the interpersonal relationship of the respondents with their peers. The researchers also constructed a survey-questionnaire form to gather the necessary data. The way of conducting the survey was by personal and telephone interview.

Discussions and Results The study was preformed to evaluate the coping mechanisms that Diabetes Mellitus patients. Upon conducting series of survey, the researchers tabulated the results using percentage of frequency and transforming it to diagram.

CONCLUSIONS This study allows the following conclusions to be drawn: 1. Based on the results, for Figure 2,3, and 4; the respondents had reported that they always undergo check-up (based on Figure 2), most of the respondents take synthetic medicines orally (based on Figure 3) and respondents rely from ampalaya extract (based on Figure 4) as the herbal aid for their condition. The generalization was drawn from this conclusion that respondents believed that medical check-ups serve as the eye-opener or monitor for their present condition, the respondents take synthetic medicines orally as they believed this is safer compared to that are injectable synthetic medicines and respondents resorts on ampalaya extracts to any other herbal extracts as they believed this is more efficient, empirical and factual as ampalaya extracts are proven by many health documentation and living testimonials. 2. Based on the outcome of the survey, the respondents are able to cope in their condition by monitoring their sugar level through the aid of a physician (based on Figure 7). Most of the respondents also prefer low-fat diet (based on Figure 8) and most of the respondents also exercise (based on Figure 9).

This induction was made because of the following reasons: • Most of the respondents need to monitor their sugar level in order to avoid complications (based on Figure 7). • Most of the respondents prefer low-fat diet over high-fiber diet because they believed that through this diet their condition will alleviate (based on Figure 8) • Most of the respondents exercise in order for them to maintain a healthy and sound body even their condition is quite dangerous (based on Figure 9) 3. The researchers concluded that persons affected by diabetes mellitus are having poor social life or in other words their condition is affecting their social lives. The reason for this outcome of our survey is that the person afflicted by diabetes mellitus becomes shy or afraid to socialize due to fear of discrimination thus causing them to have level of selfconfidence and self-esteem.

REFERENCES [1]

Leahy, J.L. “Medical Management of Diabetes Mellitus”. The New England Journal of Medicine. 17 August 2000 [2] Nathan, D.M. “Initial Management of Glycemia in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus”. The New England of Journal Medicine. 24 October 2002 [3] Robbinsons, S. Textbook of Pathology with Clinical Applications: Saunders Company. 1957. [4] Saunders, W.B. Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary: Saunders Company. 1974.