What is Diabetes?

What is Diabetes – Diabetes is like your body’s energy factory going on strike!

Imagine that your body is a busy factory that makes energy. It needs a special fuel called sugar (glucose) to run smoothly. Insulin is the worker that helps this sugar get into the factory’s machines (your cells) to make energy.

In diabetes, something goes wrong with this process. Either the factory doesn’t make enough workers (insulin), or the workers don’t work properly. This means that sugar can’t get into the cells to make energy, and instead it gets stored in the blood.

Let’s look at this energy problem in more detail.

A Brief Overview of Diabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects the way your body uses sugar for energy.

• Type 1 diabetes: Your body does not produce enough insulin, a hormone important for converting sugar into energy. This usually occurs because the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.
• Type 2 diabetes: Your body either does not produce enough insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin it does produce. This is the most common type of diabetes.

Why it’s important to understand diabetes.

Understanding diabetes is important for several key reasons:

• Early detection: Early detection and diagnosis are crucial for effective management of the condition.
• Prevention: Understanding risk factors can enable individuals to take proactive steps to prevent developing type 2 diabetes, such as maintaining a healthy weight, engaging in regular physical activity, and following a balanced diet.
• Effective management: Knowledge about diabetes enables individuals to effectively manage their condition through proper diet, exercise, and medication (if needed). This can help prevent serious complications and improve overall quality of life.
• Reducing complications: Understanding diabetes helps individuals reduce their risk of serious complications, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, nerve damage, and eye problems.

Who is at risk?

Several factors increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes:

• Age: Risk increases significantly with age.
• Family history: Having a parent, sibling, or child with diabetes increases your risk.
• Overweight or obesity: Carrying excess weight, especially around the waist, significantly increases risk.
• Physical inactivity: Lack of regular physical activity increases risk.
• Race/ethnicity: Certain ethnicities, such as African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Asian American, have a higher risk.
• Gestational diabetes: Women who have had gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) Prediabetes: This condition means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic condition where the body cannot properly regulate blood sugar levels. It occurs when the pancreas produces little or no insulin (Type 1) or when the body becomes resistant to insulin (Type 2). Symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue, and slow wound healing.

How Diabetes Affects the Body

Diabetes impairs the body’s ability to produce or use insulin effectively, causing blood sugar levels to rise. This can have significant consequences on a variety of organs and systems:

• Heart disease: High blood sugar damages blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems.
• Kidney disease: Diabetes can damage the kidneys, which filter waste from the blood. This can lead to kidney failure, which may require dialysis or a kidney transplant.
• Nerve damage (neuropathy): High blood sugar can damage nerves throughout the body, causing numbness, tingling, pain, and weakness, especially in the hands and feet. This can significantly affect daily activities and quality of life.
• Eye problems: Diabetes can damage blood vessels in the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, potentially leading to vision loss and even blindness.
• Skin conditions: Diabetes can increase the risk of skin infections and slow wound healing, making it more difficult for the body to fight off infections.
• Foot problems: Nerve damage and poor blood flow to the feet can lead to ulcers, infections, and amputations in severe cases.

Differences between normal blood sugar and diabetes

Normal blood sugar: In a healthy person, the body maintains a relatively stable blood sugar level. After eating, blood sugar levels rise, but the body effectively uses insulin to move glucose from the bloodstream into the cells for energy. This ensures the body gets the fuel it needs to function properly.

Diabetes: In diabetes, this important process is disrupted.

• Type 1 diabetes: The body doesn’t produce enough insulin, causing glucose to get trapped in the bloodstream.
• Type 2 diabetes: The body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or can’t effectively use the insulin it does produce, leading to a build-up of glucose.

This causes glucose to build up in the bloodstream, leading to a variety of health problems.

Diabetes: Your Body’s Energy Puzzle

Diabetes is like a puzzle in your body. Imagine that your body is a busy factory that makes energy. It needs a special fuel called sugar (glucose) from the food you eat. This sugar is like gasoline for your body’s car.

Insulin is the worker that helps this sugar move into the factory machines (your cells) to make energy. In diabetes, something goes wrong with this process. Either there are not enough workers (insulin), or the workers don’t work properly. This leads to a traffic jam of sugar in your body, which can cause problems.

Let’s take this energy puzzle further. But first, know what is blood sugar.

Your Body’s Energy Fuel: Blood Sugar

Imagine that your body is a car. It needs fuel to run, right? Well, your body’s fuel is called sugar or glucose.

When you eat food, your body breaks it down into smaller pieces of sugar. This sugar is then absorbed into your blood, and this is what we call blood sugar. It’s like adding sugar to water. This blood sugar is then used by your body for energy.

Let’s find out how your body uses this energy.

Now, when your blood sugar rises after you release sugar, your body signals an organ called the pancreas to release a hormone called insulin. The function of this hormone is to signal your body’s cells to use blood sugar as energy. It is only after receiving these signals that the cells of the body begin to use blood sugar to produce energy for themselves.

Also Read: What Causes Diabetes?

If you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use as much insulin as it makes. When there isn’t enough insulin due to the body can’t produce them or cells stop responding to signals sent by insulin, too much blood sugar builds up in your bloodstream because it’s not used. Over time, this problem can lead to very serious health problems, such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease.

What is Insulin?

Insulin is a hormone made by the islets in the pancreas, whose function is to signal or command the cells of the body to use the sugar present in the blood. Due to the lack of insulin in the body, the blood sugar is not able to use it, due to which the amount of sugar in the blood increases. If this condition persists for a long time, then the person becomes a patient of diabetes.

Types of Diabetes

There are mainly 3 types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy).

What is Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is a problem due to which our immune system deteriorates. Due to an autoimmune reaction, our immune system mistakenly attacks the body itself and prevents the body from making insulin. The body stops producing insulin and there is a lack of insulin, due to which the blood sugar in the blood increases, and the person becomes a victim of diabetes.

About 5-10% of people with diabetes develop type 1 diabetes. Symptoms of type 1 diabetes often develop quickly and become visible. Type 1 diabetes most commonly affects children, adolescents, and young adults.

If you have type 1 diabetes, you will need to take insulin in the form of tablets or injections daily to survive.

What is Type 2 Diabetes

Insulin is made in the body of people suffering from type 2 diabetes, but their body does not use insulin well, due to which it is not possible to maintain the level of sugar in the blood at a normal level.

About 90-95% of people with diabetes suffer from type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes develops over many years and symptoms usually appear in adults. You may not notice any symptoms in children, teenagers, and young adults, so if you have the slightest doubt, get your blood sugar tested.

Type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by making healthy lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, eating healthy foods, and staying active.

What is Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes develops in pregnant women who have never had diabetes. If you have gestational diabetes, your baby may be at a higher risk of health problems in his future life.

Gestational diabetes usually goes away after your baby is born but you are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in your future life. Not only this, your child is more likely to develop a dangerous disease like obesity in childhood or adolescence, and the chances of developing type 2 diabetes later in life also increase.

What is Prediabetes

In prediabetes, blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to cause symptoms of type 2 diabetes. Prediabetes increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

You can get a blood sugar test done to diagnose prediabetes and if you have prediabetes, making changes in your lifestyle and eating habits can help control it and help prevent it.

Common Symptoms of Diabetes

Diabetes can sometimes appear with subtle or no symptoms at all, especially in the early stages of type 2 diabetes. However, some common symptoms include:

• Frequent urination: The body attempts to flush out excess sugar present in the blood, leading to frequent bathroom visits.
• Increased thirst: Excessive thirst is closely related to frequent urination as the body attempts to replenish lost fluids through urination.
• Unexplained weight loss: Despite an increased appetite, individuals with type 1 diabetes may experience unexplained weight loss due to the body’s inability to use glucose for energy.
• Fatigue: Persistent fatigue and weakness are common due to the body’s inability to effectively use glucose for energy.
• Blurred vision: High blood sugar levels can affect the lens of the eye, causing temporary blurred vision.
• Slow-healing wounds: Poor blood circulation due to diabetes can impede wound healing, making even minor cuts and scrapes take longer to heal.
• Increased hunger: Despite eating, a person with diabetes may feel constantly hungry, as the body is unable to effectively use glucose for energy.
• Numbness or tingling: Nerve damage (neuropathy) can cause numbness, tingling, or pain in the hands and feet.
• Frequent infections: Weakened immune function due to high blood sugar can increase the risk of infections, such as urinary tract infections and skin infections.

Note: These are some of the common symptoms of diabetes. The severity and type of symptoms can vary greatly between individuals. If you experience any of these symptoms, it is important to consult a healthcare professional for proper diagnosis and treatment.

How is Diabetes Diagnosed?

Diabetes diagnosis involves a few main blood tests that measure your blood sugar levels:

A1C Test

• This test provides a picture of your average blood sugar levels over the past 2-3 months.
• An A1C level of 6.5% or higher in two separate tests indicates diabetes.
• A1C levels between 5.7% and 6.4% indicate prediabetes, which means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet in the diabetic range.

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test

• This test measures your blood sugar levels when you haven’t eaten or drunk anything (except water) for at least 8 hours.
• A fasting blood sugar level of 126 mg/dL or higher in two separate tests indicates diabetes.

Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)

• This test involves drinking a sweetened liquid and then measuring your blood sugar levels before and after 2 hours.
• A blood sugar level of 200 mg/dL or higher two hours after drinking the sweetened liquid is a sign of diabetes.

If you have symptoms of diabetes or are at high risk, your doctor may recommend one or more of these blood tests to determine if you have the condition.

What is Hba1c

The full form of Hba1c is hemoglobin A1c or HbA1c or Glycosylated Haemoglobin. It is a form of hemoglobin that contains sugar. The level of Glycosylated hemoglobin is higher in diabetic patients.

A glycated hemoglobin test is also called the Hba1c test. A normal HbA1c level should be between 4% and 5.6%, which means it should be between 68 and 100 mg/dL. If someone’s level is higher than this. So it means that he is in the early stage of diabetes. And if someone’s level is above 5.7% and 6.4%. So it means that he is completely suffering from diabetes.

FAQs About What is Diabetes?

We hope you found this information about what is diabetes, What is Blood Sugar, What is Insulin, types of diabetes, what is type 1 diabetes, what is type 2 diabetes, what is gestational diabetes? What is Hba1c topic useful and worthy.

References:-

• https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf
• https://nhp.gov.in/disease/digestive/intestines/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%87%E0 %A4%B9-%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%97