Diabetes And You
Do you or someone you know have diabetes? So do nearly 21 million people in the U.S. Left untreated, diabetes ups the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other serious conditions. But it can often be avoided and managed. Get key prediabetes and diabetes information, including diabetes causes, symptoms, tests, and treatment.
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. Thus, the body loses its main source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of sugar.
How Do I Prevent Diabetes?
Because of the link between obesity and type 2 diabetes, you can do a great deal to reduce your chance of developing the disease by slimming down if you are overweight. This is especially true if diabetes runs in your family.
In fact, studies have shown that exercise and a healthy diet can prevent the development of type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance — a condition that often develops prior to full-blown type 2 diabetes. Medications have also been shown to provide similar benefit. Both diabetes drugs metformin and Precose have been shown to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in people with this pre-diabetes condition.
In someone who already has diabetes, exercise and a nutritionally balanced diet can greatly limit the effects of both types 1 and 2 diabetes on your body. In diabetics, stopping smoking is one of the best ways to help prevent the damaging effects of diabetes. If you smoke, quit; smoking dramatically increases the risk of heart disease, particularly for people with diabetes