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.
There are other types, such as gestational diabetes that sometimes afflicts pregnant women, and others. But they are much less common and, in some cases, temporary.
Typical symptoms for either type are abnormally frequent urination, produced by the body's attempt to clear excess glucose by elimination. As a result, unusual thirst is common, compensated for by drinking higher than average amounts.
Type 1 has historically been known as juvenile onset diabetes, since it affected mostly younger people. Similarly, Type 2 was called adult onset diabetes, since it was found mostly in older adults. In Type 1 diabetes, it's believed that one of the primary factors causing the disease is an autoimmune system malfunction that affects the pancreas. Type 2 may be caused or worsened by obesity and other factors.
Both Type 1 and Type 2 have genetic factors. Regardless of what initiates the condition, all forms of diabetes are the result of a failure by the body to clear glucose from the blood due to insufficient insulin or malfunctioning insulin 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.
Diabetes can have serious side-effects if untreated. Excess glucose taxes all of the body's systems and can cause various complications. The severity of these complications depends on the level of insulin resistance or deprivation.
About the Author:
Through a real life crisis Julia figured out how to live diabetes free.
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