What is Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic disease of abnormally high levels of blood sugar. It could cause several problems in various aspects of the diabetic person’s life. People might have heard about how dreadful acquiring diabetes can be and how miserable diabetes could make life if they are not under proper care. In order to take effective measures to battle diabetes, it’s important that the diabetic person first thoroughly understands what is diabetes. Here is detailed information on diabetes that can be valuable.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus or type 2 diabetes as it is commonly known among people can be considered a disorder of metabolism. Metabolism is used to denote the process through which the body makes use of the digested food to produce energy for growth. The majority of the dietary intake is broken down to glucose. Glucose serves as a fuel to the body and is a chief form of sugar in the body.
Digested food allows glucose to find its way into the bloodstream. The body cells make use of glucose for growth and energy. However, it’s impossible for glucose to enter the body cells without the presence of insulin that allows the cells to absorb glucose.
Insulin is produced by pancreas. The pancreas, through an automatic process, releases the necessary amount of insulin in order to transfer the glucose present in the blood to the cells. This way the blood sugar level is also lowered.
If a person has diabetes, then the amount of glucose in the blood is quite high. This condition is called hyperglycemia. This means either the body doesn’t produce adequate insulin, produces no insulin at all, or the cells have poor response to the insulin produced in the body. As a result, excess amounts of glucose accumulate in the blood which eventually passes out of your body through urine. In other words, even though the body might have adequate amount of glucose, the cells do not get the effective use of it.
What are the Main Types of Diabetes?
The three major types of diabetes are:
Type I Diabetes: The body produces no insulin at all.
Type II Diabetes: The body doesn’t have enough insulin or the insulin produced isn’t working properly.
Gestational Diabetes: Diabetes that is acquired during pregnancy.
According to the World Health Organization, the Type I and Type II diabetes are chronic which is to say they are perpetual and persistent while gestational diabetes resolves itself after childbirth.
After being informed of what is diabetes and how someone develops diabetes, it’s important to take measures for effective treatment against diabetes. Acquire further knowledge about its symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and other important information and take your first step against battling this deadly disorder. Diabetes when left untreated could lead to complications of unimaginable extent including blindness and gangrene. Hence, stand up against diabetes and safeguard your life.