3025 What is Diabetes?

You have recently been diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes is a lifelong condition that alters the control of sugar in your bloodstream. Foods such as bread, pasta, rice, fruit and some dairy products contain carbohydrates. When you eat carbohydrates, they pass into your stomach where they are broken down into sugar. The sugar moves into your bloodstream, and triggers a small organ in your abdomen, called the pancreas, to release insulin. Insulin is a hormone which allows sugar to enter your body’s cells. The sugar is used as fuel to produce energy in your cells. When the sugar from the carbohydrates you have eaten has been used up, and the level of sugar in your blood drops back to normal, the pancreas stops producing insulin, until your next meal when it all starts again. In addition to the sugar from carbohydrates, the liver has its own store of sugar. In between meals, the liver releases sugar to be used as energy. This sugar also triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas. There are two types of diabetes, and in both there is a problem with insulin. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. In this type of diabetes, the insulin produced in cells and the pancreas are destroyed, for reasons which are not entirely clear. This means that no insulin is produced, and high levels of sugar remain in the bloodstream instead of being used as fuel in your cells. This diabetes comes on rapidly and the symptoms can be extreme. Type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed in adults, in this type of diabetes the body cells stop responding to insulin and then over time the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin. This maybe related to obesity but genetics can also be a cause. In this type of diabetes the sugar levels in the blood stream have increased rather than entering your body's cells. This is often a gradual process and may take years to become evident. It is not good to have high levels of sugar in your bloodstream as it can cause a range of health problems and complications such as blindness, kidney and nerve damage, heart disease and strokes. The treatment of diabetes depends on which type you have. People with type 1 diabetes have to inject insulin. People with type 2 diabetes are usually treated with tablets. These tablets make the cells more sensitive to insulin, or encourage the pancreas to produce more insulin, or reduce the amount of sugar released by the liver. Whatever the tablet does, the aim is to reduce the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. Unfortunately, none of these tablets cure diabetes. In the latter stages of type 2 diabetes, some patients need to inject insulin because their pancreas stops producing its own insulin. But diabetes can also be managed by weight loss, healthy eating and exercise, as they reduce the level of sugar in your blood. Therefore, these treatments should be seen as just as important in your treatment as tablets and insulin.