Diabetes

What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that affects how the body uses glucose, a sugar that is the body's main source of energy. Like a CD player needs batteries, your body needs glucose to keep running. Here's how it should work:

1. You eat.
2. Glucose from the food gets into your bloodstream.
3. Your pancreas produces a hormone called insulin.
4.Insulin helps the glucose get into the body's cells.
5. Your body gets the energy it needs.

The pancreas is an organ that makes insulin. Insulin is like a key that opens the doors to the cells of the body. Then the glucose can move out of the blood and into the cells.


But if someone has diabetes, the body either can't make insulin (this is called type 1 diabetes) or the insulin doesn'twork in the body like it should (this is called type 2 diabetes). The glucose can't get into the cells normally, so the blood sugar level gets too high. Lots of sugar in the blood makes people sick and without energy.


Type 1 Diabetes Can't Be Prevented

Type 1 diabetes can't be prevented. Doctors can't even tell who will get it and who won't.


No one knows for sure why some persons gettype 1 diabetes, but scientists think it has something to do with genes. Genes are like instructions for how the body should look and work that are passed on by parents to their kids. But just getting the genes for diabetes isn't usually enough. Most of the time, something else has to happen to the person — like getting an infection with a virus — for him or her to get type 1 diabetes.


Type1 diabetes isn't contagious, so you can't catch it from another person or pass it along to your friends. And stuff like eating too much sugar doesn't cause type 1 diabetes.


In persons with type 1 diabetes, their body can't make insulin. Taking insulin shots is an important way that people with this diabetes control the amount of glucose (sugar) in their blood. Insulin is the only medicinethat can get blood sugar levels back to a healthier range in people with type 1 diabetes.


Type 2 Diabetes Can Be Prevented

Type 2 diabetes is different, the pancreas can still make insulin, but the body doesn't respond to it in the right way. So glucose is less able to enter the cells. It just hangs around and builds up in the blood, causing the blood glucose level to rise. And when bloodsugar levels go too high, a person can feel sick and may have health problems.


Taking Steps to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

If you want to help prevent type 2 diabetes — or just be healthier in lots of other ways — take these steps:
• Eat good-for-you foods. Try to eat foods that are low in fat, but high in other nutrients. Some good choices are: whole-grain cereals and breads, fruits,vegetables, milk, yogurt, cheese, lean meats, and other sources of protein.
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• Limit fast food and sugary sodas. Eating too much fat and sugar can make you overweight. And being overweight can make you more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Try to cut back on fatty fast foods and sugary drinks like sodas, juices, and iced teas.

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• Get up and getmoving. Staying active is a better choice than watching TV or playing video or computer games when it comes to preventing diabetes and staying healthy. Moving around a lot helps prevent diabetes and helps keep your weight in a healthy range for your height. Being active can be as simple as walking the dog, running around your yard, or playing soccer with friends. Try to do something that gets youmoving every day!

• Gestational Diabetes


Gestational diabetes develops only during pregnancy. Women who have had gestational diabetes have a 20 to 50 percent chance of developing type 2 diabetes within 5 to 10 years.


Checking Blood Sugar Levels

Checking your blood sugar levels with a glucose meter is the only way to see how well your insulin injections and meal plan are...