What is diabetes?


This is a question that I'm sure a lot of people need an answer to, because everyone always hears about how BAD diabetes is, how obese people get diabetes and how you get it when you eat too much sugar and it can all be controlled by diet blah, blah, blah.

Many of these misconceptions aren't strictly true!...
  • Firstly there are TWO types of diabetes which should really be two different diseases:                                Type two I will admit to know little about type two but i will give an explanation of what I THINK I know. This is where your pancreas produces just a small amount of insulin (insulin: a hormone which acts like a key unlocking the cells for glucose to go in to produce energy to run the body) or the body becomes less sensitive to insulin meaning blood glucose levels run higher than usual. This can usually be treated by oral drugs to increase production but can also be treated by insulin in some cases.                                                                    Type one is what I have this is a disease which is suddenly onset and is a lifelong condition, it is caused by a genetic condition with a environmental trigger leading to the body to have an autoimmune response and attacking its own insulin producing cells in the pancreas (the islets of Langerhans). This means the body can no longer produce insulin and therefore no longer control  blood glucose levels, and so they must be controlled by insulin produced artificially and either injected through syringes and pens of continually infused through an insulin pump which is worn 24/7.
  • Next there are loads of general misconceptions diabetics get asked and told on a weekly basis (we CAN eat cake!!) but to explain that I will leave this down to 'DiabeticDanica' and her series of 10 videos: 
  • So I keep talking about this insulin, what exactly is it? and why is it needed? Well Insulin acts like a key to unlock body cells and allow the glucose in to make energy to power your body and allows you to do everything you do!

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