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Diabetes

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism—the way our bodies use digested food for growth and energy. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose, the form of sugar in the blood. Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body.

After digestion, glucose passes into the bloodstream, where it is used by cells for growth and energy. For glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.

When we eat, the pancreas automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into our cells. In people with diabetes, however, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced. Glucose builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine, and passes out of the body in the urine. Thus, the body loses its main source of fuel, even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.

• Treating type 2 diabetes
  Effective therapies for improving and preventing.
• Type 1 diabetes
  Also known as juvenile diabetes.
• Testing for diabetes
  The role of blood glucose in diagnosing diabetes.
• Type 2 diabetes
  Including pre-diabetes and gestational diabetes.

• Almost 21 million people in the US have diabetes. 14 million have been diagnosed, but another six million don’t know they have it. 
• Diabetes is one of the leading causes of both death and disability in the United States.
• In 2005 alone, about 1.5 million people aged 20 or older were diagnosed with diabetes.
• Untreated or uncontrolled, diabetes can lead to blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputations, and nerve damage.
  
• 65 percent of deaths among those with diabetes are attributed to heart disease and stroke. It can also complicate pregnancy, and birth defects are more common in babies born to women with diabetes.
• The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has tripled in the last 30 years, and much of the increase is due to the dramatic increase in people who are overweight.