Over 30 million Americans have diabetes. Exactly what is diabetes? Diabetes is caused by your body has a problem producing or using insulin. This results in your body having a high blood sugar.
Your body turns food into glucose. Your pancreas produces insulin which allow the cells to receive the glucose. The glucose is then turning into energy. If you have an insulin problem, either too much, too little, or none at all, the glucose remains in the blood. Higher blood sugar than normal is called diabetes.
This causes many health problems because the body cells are starved for energy.
There several types of diabetes. Type 1, Type 2, Gestational, and Monogenic diabetes are the most common.
Type 1 is commonly called juvenile diabetes because it most often affects children and teens. However, it can affect people of all ages. With Type 1 diabetes, the islet cells are destroyed by the body. When the body attacks its on cells, it is called an autoimmune disease. With no the body cannot produce insulin, the blood sugar level goes up.
With Type 1 diabetes, the person need to take insulin everyday to survive.
Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes. When the body does not produce enough insulin or the body does not use the insulin correctly, you will have Type 2 diabetes. Then you have the same problem of the blood sugar builds up too high.
Gestational Diabetes occurs in about 18% of all pregnancies. Most of time it will go away, but you will be more susceptible to Type 1 or Type 2. Many times, it will be discovered that you have diabetes during pregnancy so they will need treatment after the pregnancy.
Monogenic is a diabetes that is inherited.
This is the first of a series of diabetes related posts which will include Prevention of Diabetes, Symptoms of Diabetes, and Cures for Diabetes.
