Diabetes is usually a lifelong (chronic) disease in which there are high levels of sugar in the blood.
Diabetes develops when the body cannot produce or use insulin, an essential hormone made in the pancreas. Insulin helps to move glucose (a form of sugar) from the blood into the cells of your body where this glucose works as a fuel to perform the functions of the cell.
When glucose builds up in the bloodstream, blood glucose (or blood sugar) rises, causing a condition known as hyperglycemia. When blood glucose goes too high, people experience a variety of symptoms.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas to control blood sugar. Diabetes can be caused by too little insulin, resistance to insulin, or both.
To understand diabetes, it is important to first understand the normal process by which food is broken down and used by the body for energy. Several things happen when food is digested:
•Type 1 Diabetes - It occur at any age, but it is most often diagnosed in children, teens, or young adults. In this disease, the body makes little or no insulin. Daily injections of insulin are needed. The exact cause is unknown.
•Type 2 Diabetes - Makes up most diabetes cases. It most often occurs in adulthood. However, because of high obesity rates, teens and young adults are now being diagnosed with it. Many people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have it.
Gestational Diabetes is high blood sugar that develops at any time during pregnancy in a woman who does not have diabetes.
Diabetes affects more than 20 million Americans. Over 40 million Americans have pre-diabetes (which often comes before type 2 diabetes).
Symptoms
Unspecific early symptoms of diabetes include fatigue, a lack of general well-being, or an increased tendency towards infections, e.g. bladder infections. When hyperglycaemia becomes more pronounced, patients lose glucose via the urine, and produce more urine. This leads to the symptoms of overt diabetes, which are typically the initial symptoms of Type 1 diabetes: increased frequency of urination leading to increased thirst, and subsequently to dehydration and weight loss.
Signs and tests
A urine analysis may show high blood sugar. However, a urine test alone does not diagnose diabetes.
Your health care provider may suspect that you have diabetes if your blood sugar level is higher than 200 mg/dL. To confirm the diagnosis, one or more of the following tests must be done.
Blood tests:
Pre-diabetes: 5.7% - 6.4%
Diabetes: 6.5% or higher
Early on in type 2 diabetes, you may be able to reverse the disease with lifestyle changes. Also, some cases of type 2 diabetes can be cured with weight-loss surgery.
There is no cure for type 1 diabetes.
Treatming both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes involves medicines, diet, and exercise to control blood sugar levels and prevent symptoms and problems.
Getting better control over your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels helps reduce the risk of kidney disease, eye disease, nervous system disease, heart attack, and stroke.
To prevent diabetes complications, visit your health care provider at least two to four times a year. Talk about any problems you are having.
Prevention
Diabetes develops when the body cannot produce or use insulin, an essential hormone made in the pancreas. Insulin helps to move glucose (a form of sugar) from the blood into the cells of your body where this glucose works as a fuel to perform the functions of the cell.
When glucose builds up in the bloodstream, blood glucose (or blood sugar) rises, causing a condition known as hyperglycemia. When blood glucose goes too high, people experience a variety of symptoms.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas to control blood sugar. Diabetes can be caused by too little insulin, resistance to insulin, or both.
To understand diabetes, it is important to first understand the normal process by which food is broken down and used by the body for energy. Several things happen when food is digested:
- A sugar called glucose enters the bloodstream. Glucose is a source of fuel for the body.
- An organ called the pancreas makes insulin. The role of insulin is to move glucose from the bloodstream into muscle, fat, and liver cells, where it can be used as fuel.
- People with diabetes have high blood sugar because their body cannot move sugar into fat, liver, and muscle cells to be stored for energy. This is because either:
- Their pancreas does not make enough insulin
- Their cells do not respond to insulin normally
- Both of the above
•Type 1 Diabetes - It occur at any age, but it is most often diagnosed in children, teens, or young adults. In this disease, the body makes little or no insulin. Daily injections of insulin are needed. The exact cause is unknown.
•Type 2 Diabetes - Makes up most diabetes cases. It most often occurs in adulthood. However, because of high obesity rates, teens and young adults are now being diagnosed with it. Many people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have it.
Gestational Diabetes is high blood sugar that develops at any time during pregnancy in a woman who does not have diabetes.
Diabetes affects more than 20 million Americans. Over 40 million Americans have pre-diabetes (which often comes before type 2 diabetes).
Symptoms
Signs and tests
A urine analysis may show high blood sugar. However, a urine test alone does not diagnose diabetes.
Your health care provider may suspect that you have diabetes if your blood sugar level is higher than 200 mg/dL. To confirm the diagnosis, one or more of the following tests must be done.
Blood tests:
- Fasting blood glucose level -- diabetes is diagnosed if it is higher than 126 mg/dL twice. Levels between 100 and 126 mg/dL are called impaired fasting glucose or pre-diabetes. These levels are risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
- Hemoglobin A1c test --
Pre-diabetes: 5.7% - 6.4%
Diabetes: 6.5% or higher
- Oral glucose tolerance test -- diabetes is diagnosed if glucose level is higher than 200 mg/dL after 2 hours of drinking a glucose drink. (This test is used more often for type 2 diabetes.)
- Overweight children who have other risk factors for diabetes, starting at age 10 and repeated every 2 years
- Overweight adults (BMI greater than 25) who have other risk factors
- Adults over age 45, repeated every 3 years
Early on in type 2 diabetes, you may be able to reverse the disease with lifestyle changes. Also, some cases of type 2 diabetes can be cured with weight-loss surgery.
There is no cure for type 1 diabetes.
Treatming both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes involves medicines, diet, and exercise to control blood sugar levels and prevent symptoms and problems.
Getting better control over your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels helps reduce the risk of kidney disease, eye disease, nervous system disease, heart attack, and stroke.
To prevent diabetes complications, visit your health care provider at least two to four times a year. Talk about any problems you are having.
Prevention
- Keeping an ideal body weight and an active lifestyle may prevent type 2 diabetes.
- There is no way yet to prevent type 1 diabetes.
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