Diabetes Info: What is Diabetes

Managing diabetes

Your healthcare professionals will help you to find ways to keep your blood glucose levels under control.

• Exercising regularly will help to use up the sugar in your blood.
• You can make healthy food choices too.
• Talk to them about any changes you should make to your diet and ask about the sort of exercise that is best for you.

In addition, you will probably be given medical treatment:

• If you have type 2 diabetes you may be given tablets which either:
  
  
  • Make your cells more sensitive to the insulin you naturally produce.
  • Or stimulate your pancreas to produce more insulin.
• If you have type 2 diabetes and tablets are not enough your doctor may recommend insulin.

However your diabetes is treated, you need to know how much glucose is in your blood and what affects your levels. You may be asked to:

• Test your blood glucose levels regularly.
• Or, test at the same times each day and look for patterns in your results.
• Your healthcare professionals will explain when you should test your blood glucose levels and will help you understand what the patterns mean. You should be taught how you can use this information to help to smooth out your blood glucose levels.

Low blood glucose

If your blood glucose level is too low you can become hypoglycaemic or 'hypo'. You may feel dizzy, shaky or sweaty.

• Immediately eat or drink something sugary to bring your sugars back up.
• Then eat something with carbohydrates such as a biscuit or sandwich.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition affecting the endocrine system (your glands and the hormones that they produce), whereby the pancreas stops producing insulin or produces too little; or where the cells in your body are resistant to the insulin that your pancreas produces.

• Insulin is the hormone which ‘unlocks’ the cells in your body and allows the sugar (glucose) in your blood to be used for immediate energy needs, or it is stored away to be used later on.
• Blood glucose comes mainly from carbohydrates in the food you eat. These are broken down in your digestive system and then transported around your body to be used as fuel for the energy we need in everyday life.
• Unless you have enough insulin the glucose in your blood cannot be used efficiently, hence causing your blood glucose levels to rise.
• If left untreated, high blood glucose levels can cause long-term health problems. Being diagnosed with diabetes will give you the opportunity to make the necessary changes to your lifestyle, therefore enabling you to avoid some of the risks associated with diabetes.

There are two main types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2. But pregnant women sometimes develop a 3rd type of diabetes, called gestational diabetes.

• Each type of diabetes has different causes so they are treated differently.
• As the causes are closely related the symptoms are also very similar.

You may experience they following symptoms:

• Dehydration and excessive thirst.
• A need to frequently go to the toilet.
• Excessive tiredness.
• Weight loss.
• Itching in the genital area or frequent episodes of thrush.
• Cuts and wounds may be very slow to heal.
• Recurrent infections (such as boils).

Type 1 diabetes

• Type 1 diabetes occurs when the insulin producing cells in the pancreas are damaged. Thus the pancreas eventually stops producing any insulin at all.
• It usually affects young people, although it can occur at any age and can develop very quickly over a short space of time.
• It is controlled with insulin injections. The amount of insulin you need is balanced against the levels of glucose in your blood.

Type 2 diabetes

• Type 2 diabetes occurs when:
  
  
  • The cells in your body are resistant to the effects of insulin.
  • Your pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin.
  • Or a combination of the two.

• It develops slowly and gradually over a long period of time, so the symptoms may not be noticed and the condition often goes undiagnosed.
• Type 2 diabetes is usually found in middle aged or elderly people, but it is increasingly being diagnosed in early adulthood and sometimes in childhood.
• It generally runs in families and is particularly prevalent in certain ethnic groups. Almost one in five people of South Asian descent is likely to get type 2 diabetes.
• It can sometimes be treated with diet and exercise. If that is not enough to control it, you will be given tablets, or you may need to move on to insulin injections.

PDF Version of What is Diabetes

What is diabetes