An overview of Diabetes

by Larissa Marum Moreira

According to the International Diabetes Federation, diabetes mellitus, or simply diabetes, is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas, that acts like a key to let glucose from the food we eat pass from the blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy. All carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose in the blood. Insulin helps glucose get into the cells.

Not being able to produce insulin or use it effectively leads to raised glucose levels in the blood (known as hyperglycaemia). Over the long-term high glucose levels are associated with damage to the body and failure of various organs and tissues.

I have talked to a diabetic patient to know a little bit more of how he deals with this disease in a daily basis, so we could understand how the treatment is, what changes should be done, what precautions should be taken etc.

His diabetes is type 2 which is an adult-onset diabetes, it is characterised by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. It is often, but not always, associated with overweight or obesity, which itself can cause insulin resistance and lead to high blood glucose levels.

I have asked him what treatment was recommended for his diabetes, and he answered that, initially, his doctor recommended exercising and dieting, however, after some time, he had to take oral drugs and insulin.

He said he takes three different types of pills per day and he needs to inject a dose of insulin at night by the time of supper. He mentioned that those dosages are taken to maintain his blood glucose levels at a normal range. Even though following these steps, sometimes they do not prevent him from having high blood glucose levels. He told me that his “normal” blood glucose level is between 140 and 200mg, which is not in the healthy range.

He told me that the doctor said he should avoid or moderate the intake of carbohydrate foods, like bread, cake, pasta, rice, potato, biscuits, crackers, etc because those nourishments increase the blood glucose levels.  He said he needs to deal with this disease very carefully, because it is very dangerous if not taken care of. He also observed that he discovered he was diabetic when he was very young, and this helped him to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I have asked him if he could tell us what are the symptoms of diabetes are, and he answered that when he is hyperglicemic he has frequent urinations and tiredness and he is excessive thirsty.

According to the World Health Organization, 347 million people worldwide have diabetes, and, in 2012, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Apparently, people should pay a visit to the doctor often and do tests to check whether they have diabetes or not.

Normcore is in fashion

“Normcore”: the new trend which goes against the principles and market of fashion industry

by Larissa Marum Moreira

There are a lot of people who strictly follow the dictatorship of fashion and trend alerts and consume clothes heartily. Nevertheless, it has been a while that things are changing; a new trend has been coming up, a movement against the fashionistas is growing as an answer to overbuying, overspending and overconsuming. The normcore, which was previously underestimated, is in fashion now.

“Normcore” is the agglutination of the words “normal” plus “hardcore”, which means extremely normal. How does this term reflect on people’s style? It means that when it comes to dressing, people keep it simple, casual and wear comfy clothes rather than audacious, gaudy and colorful clothes. The colors black, white, grey and navy blue are the ones to be chosen, patterns and different prints should be out of the palette. The clothes cuts are simple and traditional, nothing asymmetric.

It all began with people who have never cared about fashion, those who kept a comfy style and preferred ordinary looks. After some time, many people who have always cared about trends have changed their point of view, since they realized there is no necessity for having so much stuff in their closets and wasting so much money with something so trivial.

Ironically, what was supposed to be a light and easygoing lifestyle now is extremely popular. It has became become a trend. Bloggers are promoting this trend and giving advice on how people should dress as normcore. People carefully dress as if they do not mind about it. After all, following trends is something expensive and tiring.

      

People included in this group who are unaware their style is in fashion: the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the United States president Barack Obama.