Ask anyone if they have heard of diabetes and they will likely answer yes. Most people have heard of diabetes. They may have a friend or relative who has the condition. However, most people know little about how diabetes affects the body.
Chronic high blood glucose levels characterize the medical condition called diabetes. Diabetes occurs when the cells resist utilizing insulin to absorb glucose or when the system does not produce sufficient insulin.
When too little insulin is produced, Type 1 diabetes occurs. When the cells resist insulin type 2 diabetes occurs. Type 2 is the most prevalent, happening in 90 % of all cases of diabetes. Type 1 is occurs in approximately 7 % of the cases. Diabetes afflicts some 7% of Americans, the majority of whom are 60 or over.
The remaining types of diabetes are less common and generally temporary. For example, pregnant women may develop gestational diabetes- a condition that ceases upon delivery.
All types of diabetes usually produce frequent urination, as the body attempts to eliminate the excess glucose. This attempt results in an unusual thirst. Untreated diabetics may feel their thirst is unquenchable.
Because Type 1 usually affects children and teenagers is has been called juvenile onset diabetes. Type 2 is found mainly in older people and so has been called adult onset diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is thought to be caused mainly by an autoimmune system malfunction that damages the pancreas. Obesity and other factors may cause Type 2.
Both have genetic components as risk factors. But in either type, and regardless of the cause, the net effect is the same: an inability to clear glucose out of the bloodstream because of inadequate or faulty insulin production or use.
Insulin is the hormone chiefly responsible for regulating the level of glucose in the body. Many foods that contain carbohydrates are broken down by digestion and produce primarily glucose. That glucose is taken up by the body to supply the energy needed for cell repair, muscle movement and a thousand other functions. Insulin helps the glucose make its way into the cells.
When insulin is produced in too low an amount, or the body’s cells resist the intake of glucose by interfering with insulin’s function, diabetes is the result. Since the pancreas produces the overwhelming majority of the body’s insulin, when some condition causes it to malfunction, diabetes can result.
Whether diabetes is Type 1 or Type 2, it is generally chronic. However, much can now be done to reduce the bad effects of diabetes. Either type of diabetes can be managed with appropriate nutrition and fairly easy treatments. Diabetes also varies in its degree of malfunction. Sometimes the insulin used or made is just slightly insufficient; in other instances, the cells are strongly resistance to insulin or the pancreas makes virtually no insulin.
Since excess glucose left in the bloodstream can lead to a range of complications, diabetes can have a number of follow up effects. But how severe those effects are depends on the severity of the insulin deprivation or resistance.
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