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Diabetes, Simply Said! Part 1
Diabetes is a disease that occurs when a person’s body doesn’t make enough of the hormone insulin or can’t use insulin properly. There are 2 main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when your body’s pancreas doesn’t produce any insulin. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas either doesn’t produce enough insulin or your body’s cells ignore the insulin. Between 90% and 95% of people who are diagnosed with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. In the United States, it is estimated that 23.6 million people are diagnosed with diabetes and 58 million are walking around without the knowledge of their disease. Hence for every three people you see, one person has diabetes. How rampant it is! The best way to overcome diabetes is to be empowered with knowledge.
So how does diabetes occur? When you digest food, your body changes most of the food you eat into glucose (a form of sugar). A hormone called insulin allows this glucose to enter all the cells of your body and be used as energy. Insulin is produced by the pancreas. In someone who has type 2 diabetes, the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin or the body’s cells can’t use insulin properly (called insulin resistance). This causes glucose to build up in your blood instead of moving into the cells.
The early stages of diabetes have very few symptoms, but the damage may already be happening to your eyes, your kidneys and your cardiovascular system even before you notice symptoms. Common symptoms include the following: extreme hunger, extreme thirst, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, blurry vision, slow-healing wounds, sores or bruises, dry, itchy skin, tingling or numbness in the hands or feet, and frequent or recurring skin, gum, bladder or vaginal yeast infections
Now that you know what diabetes is and how it presents. I would share a few risk factors;
1. Weight: Obesity is the single most important risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The more overweight you are, the more resistant your body is to insulin.
2. Age: The risk for type 2 diabetes increases with age, especially after 45 years of age.
3. Family history: Your risk for diabetes is higher if your mother, father or sibling has diabetes. Tell your doctor if anyone in your family has diabetes.
4. Race/ethnic background: You are at greater risk if you belong to one of these groups: Native, Hispanic, Pacific, and African American.
5. Diet: A diet high in fat, calories and cholesterol increases your risk of diabetes. In addition, a poor diet can lead to obesity (another risk factor for diabetes) and other health problems.
6. Gestational diabetes: This kind of diabetes occurs only during pregnancy. It occurs in about 4% of pregnant women. Although gestational diabetes goes away after pregnancy, 40% to 60% of women who had gestational diabetes are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within 15 years.
7. Polycystic ovary syndrome: Is a condition that occurs when an imbalance of hormone levels in a women’s body causes cysts to form on the ovaries. Women who have PCOS are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
8. Multiple risk factors: The risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases with the number of risk factors you have.
We would review diagnosis, treatment, and complication of diabetes in Part 2 of Diabetes; Simply Said! As the saying goes; prevention is better than cure so let’s guide ourselves with the truth and if there is already a diagnosis of diabetes, we can still have the upper hand with acquired knowledge.
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