What is Diabetes?
Throughout history, diabetes has been a leading cause of death by disease. Today, even with the availability of insulin, it is estimated that approximately one-half million North Americans die as a result of diabetes and its complications like heart and kidney disease, stroke, blindness and amputation each year. Diabetes is a disease that touches millions in one way or another, whether it's those with the disease, friends or family members who are suffering the implications.
Simply put, diabetes is a serious disease that impairs the body's ability to use food properly.
Normally, glucose, a form of sugar produced when starches and sugars are digested, is burned as fuel to supply the body with energy. This process - turning food into energy - is called metabolism.
But in order to metabolize glucose properly, the body requires another substance: insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a gland located just beneath the stomach; its job is to regulate the body's use of glucose. Insulin is essential to the metabolic process.
Trying to burn glucose without insulin is like trying to cook food without heat. It can't be done. And that's the problem for people with diabetes: they either don't produce enough insulin to properly metabolize glucose, or the insulin they have works inefficiently.
Without insulin to turn glucose into energy the glucose piles up in the bloodstream and spills into the urine. Excessively high levels of sugar in the blood and the urine are the hallmarks of untreated diabetes.
The main goal of diabetes treatment is to control blood sugar levels and keep them in the normal range to avoid the complications such as heart and kidney disease, stroke, blindness and amputation. The specific kind of treatment used to control blood sugars depends on the type of diabetes a person has.
What are the different types of diabetes?
Type 1 (insulin-dependent or juvenile)
Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) can occur at any age, but most commonly is diagnosed from infancy to the late 30s. In this type of diabetes, a person’s pancreas produces little or no insulin. Although the causes are not entirely known, scientists believe the body’s own defense system (the immune system) attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. People with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin several times every day.
Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) can occur at any age, but most commonly is diagnosed from infancy to the late 30s. In this type of diabetes, a person’s pancreas produces little or no insulin. Although the causes are not entirely known, scientists believe the body’s own defense system (the immune system) attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. People with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin several times every day.
Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset)
Type 2 diabetes typically develops after age 40, but can appear earlier, and has more recently begun to appear with more frequency in children. In this form of diabetes the pancreas still produces insulin, but the body does not produce enough or is not able to use it effectively. Treatment includes diet control, exercise, self-monitoring of blood glucose and, in some cases, oral drugs or insulin.
Gestational DiabetesAbout 2 to 5 percent of pregnant women develop high blood sugar during pregnancy. Although this type of diabetes usually disappears after the birth of the baby, women who have had gestational diabetes are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
