“Honey…. If you eat too many sweets… you might get diabetes.”
I am quite confident that all of us have heard that phrase at least once in our lives, be it from our parents or friends.
But the question is… what is diabetes?
I mean, if I were walk up to you right now and ask you that question, would you be able to answer it with many details, or with just minimum knowledge of it?
Well lucky for you, this blog will teach you all you need to know about diabetes so that you would be able to answer that question with 100% confidence!
The pancreas, an internal organ, has many functions to perform so that the body can survive, and one of these functions is to produce a hormone known as “Insulin”. The purpose of insulin is to move sugars (also known as glucose) from the blood into designated cells, thus lowering the sugar levels in the blood and providing a source of energy for cells to use. However, if the sugars in the blood are not removed by insulin properly (be it from the pancreas not producing enough insulin, or the cells in the body do not react with insulin as they should), the high blood sugar level will become toxic, and cells won’t get the fuel they need to survive.
Here is a model of the human pancreas.
From Wikimedia, User Suleyman Habib
Under these elevated blood sugar levels, the symptoms of a condition known as diabetes (also known as Diabetes Mellitus) are formed.
The symptoms of diabetes are:
- Fatigue
- Unexplained weight loss
- Excessive urination
- Excessive eating
- Slow wound healing
- Infections
- Blurry visions
- Excessive itching
There are two types of diabetes. The first one is called “Type 1 Diabetes”, and in this type the pancreas does “not” produce any insulin at all, and because of this people who suffer from type 1 diabetes will have to take insulin injections (from devices such as insulin pumps) for the rest of their lives. They must also eat a special diet and take regular blood tests to insure proper sugar levels.
A picture of someone inserting insulin into their body via insulin pump.
From Wikimedia, User Mbbradford
The second type of diabetes is called “Type 2 diabetes”. This type of diabetes is caused from the pancreas not producing “enough” insulin for proper function. However, unlike type 1 diabetes, this one can be treated just by simply losing weight, follow a healthy diet, and doing plenty of exercise (these methods won’t cure diabetes, but just simply controls and lowers the symptoms of it).
So I hope from reading this you have learned a lot about diabetes, but just in case if you did not understand, here is a short cartoon to help refine your understanding.
The video above shows the basics of diabetes. (User: HealthNutsMedia)
-Martin Lee
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