What are brittle diabetics?
Brittle diabetes is diabetes that’s especially difficult to manage and often disrupts everyday life. People with brittle diabetes have severe swings in blood glucose (blood sugar). The swings can cause frequent episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).
What causes a brittle diabetic?
Brittle diabetes has a number of potential causes. Psychological issues and inconsistent digestion as a result of nerve damage account for most cases. Brittle diabetes is often associated with stress, depression and other psychological issues. Stress can lead to acute and temporary insulin resistance.
Is brittle diabetes Type 2?
Brittle diabetes occurs rarely in people with type 2 diabetes. Some doctors classify it as a complication of diabetes, while others consider it a subtype of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by blood sugar levels that fluctuate between high and low (hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia).
Is the term brittle diabetic still used?
Not anymore, at least. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, I heard this term quite often from both doctors and patients. My mom, diagnosed as a child herself, was told for decades that she had “brittle” diabetes, and the term’s still used by some veteran type 1s, even now.
How long can a brittle diabetic live?
Females with type 1 diabetes have a life expectancy of about 68 years, while those without have a life expectancy of 81 years. As brittle diabetes typically involves severe fluctuations that are hard to control, life expectancy will likely be affected.
What does brittle mean in medical terms?
Medical Definition of brittle : affected with or being a form of type 1 diabetes characterized by large and unpredictable fluctuations in blood glucose level brittle diabetes a brittle diabetic.
What is brittle explain with example?
1a : easily broken, cracked, or snapped brittle clay brittle glass. b : easily disrupted, overthrown, or damaged : frail a brittle friendship. 2a : perishable, mortal.
What is brittleness and example?
Brittle materials have a small plastic region and they begin to fail toward fracture or rupture almost immediately after being stressed beyond their elastic limit. Bone, cast iron, ceramic, and concrete are examples of brittle materials.
What is called brittle?
having hardness and rigidity but little tensile strength; breaking readily with a comparatively smooth fracture, as glass. easily damaged or destroyed; fragile; frail: a brittle marriage.
Why does brittle mean?
easily broken
brittle, crisp, and fragile mean easily broken. brittle is used of something that is hard and dry. Brittle twigs snapped under our feet.
What you mean by brittle?
adjective, brit·tler, brit·tlest. having hardness and rigidity but little tensile strength; breaking readily with a comparatively smooth fracture, as glass. easily damaged or destroyed; fragile; frail: a brittle marriage.
What is definition of brittleness?
Brittleness identifies material easily broken, damaged, disrupted, cracked, and/or snapped. Brittleness can result from different conditions such as from drying, plasticizer migration, etc. Brittle materials exhibit tensile S-S behaviors different from the usual S-S curves.
What is the ultimate goal of care for brittle diabetic patients?
The ultimate goal for physicians caring for brittle diabetic patients is to have effective therapy for all causes of brittle diabetes. Publication types Review MeSH terms Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / etiology*
Is brittle diabetes the same as glycemic lability?
“Brittle diabetes” has been defined many ways, but it essentially means that the person has very labile blood sugar levels, usually in the context of type 1 diabetes. Yet, glycemic lability is a hallmark of type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition in which there is an absolute absence of endogenous insulin production.
Is brittle diabetes always secondary to a specific etiology?
Studies during the last decade demonstrate that brittle diabetes is always secondary to a specific, identifiable et … Brittle diabetes is an uncommon complication of type I diabetes. However, the seriousness of the complication and its demands on the health care system warrant aggressive intervention.
How does brittle diabetes affect the body?
The swings can cause frequent episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). Brittle diabetes is sometimes called labile diabetes or unstable diabetes.