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Diabetes is a disease in which your body either doesn’t make or can’t use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to turn the food we eat into energy. According to PubMed Health, more than 20 million Americans have diabetes, and more than 40 million Americans have pre-diabetes, a condition that often leads to type 2 diabetes.
Types
Type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes, often begins in childhood, and is also called juvenile diabetes. A person with this type of diabetes produces little or no insulin. Insulin-dependent diabetics must inject themselves daily with insulin -- typically two or three times a day. Type 2, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, used to occur primarily in older adults, and it used to be known as "adult-onset" diabetes. Now that more and more people are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the "juvenile" and "adult" labels have faded from use because they are no longer accurate. With type 2 diabetes, a person's body produces insulin but processes it abnormally.
Insulin
In healthy people, the pancreas is triggered to produce insulin when the body's blood sugar rises. The insulin then helps the sugar in your blood enter your cells, in order to provide your cells energy from the food you eat.
In Type 1 diabetes, with inadequate amounts of insulin, your body's cells cannot use the energy that your food otherwise would provide. Your blood sugar levels get higher and higher until you may experience a coma or death. With insulin injections, however, your body can keep its blood sugar levels within a healthy range, and your cells can get the energy they need.
In Type 2 diabetes, your body produces the insulin but your cells have "insulin resistance," meaning that they do not respond properly to the insulin to allow the sugar into your cells. Certain conditions, such as being overweight, being sedentary and eating a diet high in simple carbohydrates, contribute to insulin resistance, which is why people with Type 2 diabetes are often advised to lose weight, exercise and decrease the amount of carbs they eat.
Treatment
Everyone with diabetes must closely monitor their blood sugar, watch what they eat, and exercise regularly. Life can start to feel as if it's revolving around mealtimes and monitoring the disease, which can be very stressful, especially for parents caring for children or teenagers who have this condition.
People with diabetes must also take good care of their feet and eyes, because circulatory problems associated to diabetes can lead to blindness or amputations. Kidney problems are also quite common, for the same problem -- impaired circulation affects proper kidney functioning.
Signs You May Have Diabetes
People with diabetes are frequently very tired and very thirsty, no matter how much fluid they drink. People with diabetes may also urinate a lot. Many parents suspect something is wrong with their children when they are urinating often, especially if they begin to wet the bed after having been toilet-trained. In addition, children with diabetes often lose weight. High blood sugar levels also make patients more likely to develop yeast infection or persistent diaper rash. If you suspect diabetes, consult your health-care provider right away.
