Diabetes Information

Diabetes affects approximately 17 million people (about eight percent of the population) in the United States. It is the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer.

The key to understanding how to control your diabetes is to equip yourself with the most up-to-date diabetes information available.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by high blood sugar levels, which result from defects in insulin secretion, or action, or both. Elevated levels of blood glucose (hyperglycemia) lead to spillage of glucose into the urine. Normally, blood glucose levels are tightly controlled by insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas. Insulin lowers the blood glucose level. When the blood glucose elevates (for example, after eating food), insulin is released from the pancreas to normalize the glucose level. According to diabetes information, in patients with diabetes, the absence or insufficient production of insulin causes hyperglycemia.

Diabetes is a chronic medical condition; controlling this condition means researching and keeping abreast of current diabetes information, such as the best foods for diabetics, what the common symptoms of the condition are and how to best manage blood sugar levels.

What are the types of diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes (also called insulin-dependent diabetes or juvenile diabetes) is caused by autoimmune destruction of the B cells of the pancreas which normally secrete insulin. Those patients require insulin injections for survival.

Type 2 diabetes (or non-insulin-dependent diabetes) is much more common according to current diabetes information. Type 2 diabetes results from insulin resistance, mainly due to obesity, with inadequate additional production of insulin by the body. In other words, the pancreas produces a reduced amount of insulin or the cells do not respond to the insulin, or both. According to current diabetes information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), rates of Type 2 diabetes have tripled among all age groups in the past 30 years. This is largely due to the increasing percentage of Americans who are overweight and sedentary. For the first time in the history of humans, type 2 diabetes is now more common than type 1 diabetes in childhood. Most of these cases are a direct result of poor eating habits, higher body weight, and lack of exercise.

What is the long-term impact of diabetes?

Current diabetes information indicates that over time, diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, and nerve damage. These types of damage are the result of damage to small vessels. Diabetes is also known to accelerate the hardening and narrowing of the arteries, leading to strokes, coronary heart disease, and other large blood vessel diseases.

How is diabetes managed? Those who are diabetic must learn how to manage blood sugar through diet, exercise and sometimes through the use of insulin. Most diabetes information indicates that those who understand how to manage diabetes are at less risk of developing long-term complications.