UNDERSTANDING WHAT DIABETES IS ALL ABOUT

From medical standpoint, the disease called diabetes occurs when your glucose (blood sugar) is too high above the normal level. The amount of glucose discovered in your body is basically the main type of sugar which derives from the food you consume, and is also made in your liver and muscles where your blood carries glucose to all of your body’s cells to use for energy. In United Kingdom alone, diabetes is a common life-long health condition and there are roughly around 2.5 million people are being diagnosed with this particular illness. Simply put, it is a condition where the amount of glucose in your blood is exceedingly high to the point where your body cannot use it properly.

Technically, your pancreas organ located between your stomach and spine helps with digestion and releases a hormone it makes called insulin into your blood. This insulin, in addition, helps your blood carry the amount of glucose to all your body’s cells. When your pancreas does not produce enough insulin resistance to help glucose enter your body’s cells or when glucose stays in your blood, this will inflict the glucose (blood sugar) levels get too high and cause you to have diabetes or pre-diabetes. After all, having too much glucose in your blood over time can also cause other serious health problems.

Furthermore, insulin is the hormone produced by the pancreas organ that allows glucose to enter the body’s cells where it is used as a source of fuel for energy so we can work, play and generally live our lives. While the glucose stems from digesting carbohydrate and is also produced by the liver, carbohydrate on the other hand comes from many different kinds of foods and drink, including starchy foods such as bread, potatoes, some dairy products; sugar and other sweet foods. If you have diabetes, your body cannot make proper use of this glucose so it builds up in the blood and isn’t able to be used as a source of fuel for energy. In any case, there are two types of main diabetes which are Type 1 and Type 2.

Below here is the illustration of how diabetes develops when the amount of glucose cannot enter your body’s cells properly to be used as a source of fuel for energy.

TYPE 1 DIABETES

Type 1 diabetes develops when the insulin-producing cells in the body have been destroyed and the body is unable to produce any insulin. As you have already learned from the above illustration, insulin is the key that unlocks the door to the body’s cells. Once the door is unlocked, only then can glucose enter the cells where it is used as a source of fuel for energy. In the case of Type 1 Diabetes, the body is unable to produce any insulin so there is no key to unlock the door and the glucose builds up in the blood. When this occurs, your body is having abnormal reaction to your cells. After all, Type 1 Diabetes can develop at any age and usually appears before the age of 40, especially in childhood.

TYPE 2 DIABETES

Unlike the type 1, Type 2 Diabetes develops when the body can still make some insulin but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly. As mentioned previously, insulin acts as a key unlocking the cells and therefore if there is not enough insulin or it is not working properly, the cells are only partially unlocked and the amount of glucose builds up in the blood. In the case of Type 2 Diabetes, it usually appears in people over the age of 40 though in South Asian and black people who are at greater risk often suffer from the age of 25. Nonetheless, the Type 2 Diabetes is increasingly becoming more common in children, adolescents and young people of all ethnicities which accounts for between 85 and 95 per cent.