Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease many people fight. Including children, teens, and adults. This disease causes more deaths than Breast Cancer and Aids altogether in a year. Responsibility and courage is one way many people live a healthy lifestyle managing diabetes all at once.

Mostly all people with type 2 diabetes had prediabetes before type 2. Prediabetes is when blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet enough to be considered diabetes.

Diabetes type 1 is usually found in children and teens. Their bodies can’t produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that makes sugar, starches and other food into daily energy that is needed for the body. Only 5% of diabetic people have type 1. Insulin therapy and other treatments are used to manage this disease.

Type 2 diabetes is when blood glucose is higher than normal, called hyperglycemia. People with type 2 have insulin resistance. Their body does not use insulin properly. In type 2, the body does not produce insulin or the cells ignore it. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy. Each time you eat food, the body breaks down the sugar and the starches into glucose which is energy for the body. Insulin does its job by taking the sugar from the blood to the cells. When glucose builds up in the blood, the cells crave for glucose/energy. As time passes, high blood glucose levels might hurt the eyes, kidneys, nerves, or heart.Your pancreas makes extra insulin to make up for it. But over time it won’t be able to keep up and make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose normal. African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and the aged population are at greater risk of getting diabetes.

There are many risk factors for diabetes type 2.

·        People with impaired glucose tolerance and/or impaired fasting glucose.

·        People over 45 and people with family history of diabetes.

·        Overweight and un-active people.

·        People with low HDL, high triglycerides, and high blood pressures.

·        Women who had gestational diabetes or who have a baby weighing 9 pounds or more at birth.

Plenty of pregnant women are found with gestational diabetes on their 24th week of pregnancy. It doesn’t mean you had diabetes before or will after. Pregnant women with high blood glucose are said to have gestational diabetes. No one is sure what the cause might be but there is a possibility that the hormones from the placenta block the insulin which is known as insulin resistance. This type of diabetes starts when your body is unable to make and use all the insulin needed for pregnancy. Women usually have no symptoms.

Diabetes has many symptoms. People experience blurry vision, extreme fatigue, they urinate often, get very thirsty and hungry than normal, weight lost even if you are eating a lot (usually found in diabetes type 1), cuts and bruises that heal slowly, and pain or numbness in hands or feet which is found in type 2.Diabetes can be prevented by staying at a healthy weight, eating healthy, staying active and managing your blood glucose.

Diabetes can be diagnosed by a number of tests and not only one. The first one is called the A1C test. It measures your average blood glucose for the past 2-3 months. To take this test you do not have to fast or drink anything. The Fasting Plasma Glucose test checks your fasting blood glucose levels. When you fast, you are not allowed to drink or eat anything, except water, for a couple of hours before the test. A two hour test that checks your blood glucose levels before you drink a special sweet drink is called the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test. It tells the doctor how your body processes glucose. The Random Plasma Glucose test checks your blood at any time of day when you have severe symptoms.