IELTS Reading - Diabetes

IELTS Reading Passage You are advised to spend 20 minutes to read the passage and answer the following questions.

Diabetes; A Sweet Disease! Diabetes is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterised by impaired ability of the body to produce or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. This relatively frequent disease can be a major cause of morbidity and mortality, although these outcomes are not the immediate effects of the disorder. In fact, it is the untreated chronic diabetes that can be fatal. Insulin is a hormone secreted by beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin's role in the body is to trigger cells to take up glucose so that the cells can use this energy-yielding sugar. Patients with diabetes may have dysfunctional beta cells, resulting in decreased insulin secretion, or their body cells may be resistant to the effects of insulin, resulting in a decreased ability of these cells to take up and metabolise glucose. In both cases, the levels of glucose in the blood increase, causing high blood sugar or hyperglycemia. There are two major forms of the disease. Type I diabetes, formerly referred to as insulindependent diabetes or juvenile-onset diabetes, as it usually arises in childhood. Type II diabetes, formerly called non-insulin-dependent diabetes or adult-onset diabetes, which usually occurs after age 40 and becomes more common with increasing age. People with Type I diabetes have low or absent levels of insulin and must inject insulin into their bodies each day. Less than 10 percent of all diabetics have this form of the disease. Type I diabetes accounts for about 5 to 10 percent of cases of diabetes. Most patients with type I diabetes are children or adolescents, but about 20 percent are adults. The frequency of type I diabetes varies widely in different countries, from less than 5 cases per 100,000 people per year in several Asian countries to more than 30 cases per 100,000 people per year in Finland. Some patients with type I diabetes have genetic variations. In general, 2 to 5 percent of children whose mother or father has type I diabetes will also develop type I diabetes. Type II diabetes is far more common than type I diabetes, accounting for about 90 percent of all cases. The frequency of type II diabetes varies greatly within and between countries and is increasing throughout the world. Most patients with type II diabetes are adults, often older adults, but it can also occur in children and adolescents. There is a

stronger genetic component to type II diabetes than to type I diabetes. For example, identical twins are much more likely to both develop type II diabetes than to both develop type I diabetes, and 7 to 14 percent of people whose mother or father has type II diabetes will also develop type II diabetes; this estimate increases to 45 percent if both parents are affected. Type II diabetes is strongly associated with obesity and is a result of insulin resistance and insulin deficiency. In other words, if blood glucose concentrations is increased to a similar level in a healthy person and in an obese person, the healthy person will secrete more insulin than the obese person. A third but less common type, gestational diabetes is a temporary condition associated with pregnancy. In this situation, blood glucose levels increase during pregnancy but usually return to normal after delivery. However, gestational diabetes is recognised as a risk for type II diabetes later in life. When blood glucose concentrations increase, more glucose is filtered by the kidneys than can be reabsorbed, resulting in glucose excretion in the urine. High glucose concentration in the urine reduces the reabsorption of water by the kidneys, causing excretion of large volumes of urine. The immediate symptoms include excessive urination, thirst, appetite loss, and vomiting. If not treated quickly, coma and death can follow. Symptoms of Type II and gestational diabetes include excessive urination, thirst, hunger, some weight loss, and fatigue. These symptoms appear gradually and may even go unnoticed until early adulthood. If not recognised and treated properly, prolonged high levels of blood sugar can cause the walls of small blood vessels to thicken. This condition can culminate in heart attack, stroke, gangrene, vascular collapse, nervous system dysfunction, kidney failure, and blindness.

Before the isolation of insulin in the 1920s, most patients died within a short time after onset. Today, however, treatment for diabetes is aimed at reducing blood glucose concentrations to normal levels in various ways from pancreas transplantation, beta cell transplantation, implantable mechanical insulin infusion systems for insulin injection to prescribing special diet and exercise. All these promote well-being and tend to minimise the development and progression of the long-term complications of diabetes. All diabetes patients are put on diets designed to help them reach and maintain normal body weight, and they often are encouraged to exercise regularly, which enhances the movement of glucose into muscle cells and blunts the rise in blood glucose that follows carbohydrate ingestion. Even those patients taking insulin may need to vary food intake from meal to meal, according to their level of activity; as exercise frequency and intensity increase, less insulin and more

food intake may be necessary. In general, patients are encouraged to follow a diet that is relatively low in fat and contains adequate amounts of protein. In practice about 30 percent of calories should come from fat, 20 percent from protein, and the remainder from carbohydrates, preferably from complex carbohydrates rather than simple sugars. Diabetics who are unable to produce insulin in their bodies receive regular injections of the hormone, which are often customised according to their individual and variable requirements. Beef or pork insulin, made from the pancreatic extracts of cattle or pigs, can be used to treat humans with diabetes. However, modern human insulin treatments are based on recombinant DNA technology. Human insulin may be given as a form that is identical to the natural form found in the body, which acts quickly but transiently, or as a form that has been biochemically modified so as to prolong its action for up to 24 hours.

Questions 1-6 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? Write

True

if the statement is true according to the passage

False

if the statement is false according to the passage

Does Not Say

if the statement is not given in the passage

Example: 0

If diabetes is not taken care of for a long time, it can cause death.

….True….

1

In some cases diabetes is caused as some cells fail to absorb glucose for their metabolism. …………….

2 30% of the Finnish suffer from type I diabetes while in many Asian countries the rate is much below this. …………… 3

There is a direct relationship between certain physical features such as a person's height and weight with type II diabetes. ……………

4

Type II diabetes is usually diagnosed in early ages.

5

Balanced diet and regular exercise can play an effective role in prevention and treatment of both Type I and II diabetes. ……………

6

Extracting artificial insulin from some species of animals is much easier than producing it in biochemical laboratories. ……………

……………

Questions 7-10 Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER to complete each sentence. 7

…………….………….. are responsible to produce insulin for the metabolism of the body cells.

8

In the past, the term ……………………………. was used instead of Type I diabetes to show the young age of the sufferers.

9

Research has found that Type II diabetes …..…………………….. to children from the parents who suffer from the disease.

10

Women suffering from gestational diabetes will usually get rid of it after their …………………………………… .

Questions 11-14 Complete the flowchart with words taken from the reading passage. Use ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.