diabetes

One of the most common illnesses in the world, diabetes is described as hyperglycemia due to insulin resistance or lack of insulin production ("Diagnosis and classification," 2008). Out of 8% of population that has diabetes, type II diabetes consists about 90-95% of all the diabetic population ("Diagnosis and classification," 2008). Historically, type II diabetes was also called adult-onset diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes. However, lately, type II diabetes has been increasingly prevalent in younger population. Normally, insulin produced by the pancreas is transported from bloodstream to the body cells or stored by the liver in the form of glycogen in order to balance blood glucose level. In people with type II diabetes, blood glucose remains in the blood due to insulin resistance, thereby resulting in hyperglycemia. High cases of type II diabetes are common in people over the age of 40 ("Diagnoses of diabetes," 2012). According to McCarthy, inactivity, degradation of metabolic function, and overweight in the aging population is also linked to diabetes (2010). Despite the fact that type II diabetes accompanies several factors, the rise in obesity has been tied to the prevalence of Type II diabetes (McCarthy, 2010).

Women in general have greater concerns for diabetes because of the rise in obesity or the fact that they might have experienced gestational diabetes early on. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, women who have had gestational diabetes could have 35 - 60% chance of developing type II diabetes in later years (2013). With women consisting of great number of obese population, it is essential to figure out preventive measures of diabetes because one of the major risk ...

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...54). Enough evidence that supports the fact that prevention of diabetes with metformin outweighs the risk would be supportive to implement metformin without any fear of complications. It is still controversial for a nurse to provide patient education about whether metformin or exercise is more effective in preventing type II diabetes. Hence, a nurse may not be able to make sound decision on providing best advise to patient in treating diabetes. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to use available research to identify the effectiveness of metformin along with side effects and other complications as well as the effectiveness of exercise therapy in treatment of type II diabetes. The effectiveness of both therapy will be determined based on the decrease in obesity in women, normal plasma glucose level, decrease in diseases tied to diabetes, and reduction in diabetes.