|

Translate/Traduisez/Übersetzen Sie/Traduzca/Traduca/Traduza:

Your doctor may have recently advised you have diabetes. Perhaps you are overweight and you have discovered you may be at risk of diabetes. Others may have a friend or family member who has been diagnosed with the disease. Just what does diabetes mean and how does it affect your lifestyle?

Diabetes means that your blood glucose (often called blood sugar) is too high. Your blood always has some glucose in it because your body needs glucose for energy to keep you going. But too much glucose in the blood isn't good for your health.

How do you get high blood glucose?

Glucose comes from the food you eat and is also made in your liver and muscles. Your blood carries the glucose to all the cells in your body. Insulin is a chemical (a hormone) made by the pancreas. The pancreas releases insulin into the blood. Insulin helps the glucose from food get into your cells. If your body doesn't make enough insulin or if the insulin doesn't work the way it should, glucose can't get into your cells. It stays in your blood instead. Your blood glucose level then gets too high, causing pre-diabetes or diabetes.

What is pre-diabetes?

Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but are not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. People with pre-diabetes are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes and for heart disease and stroke. The good news is if you have pre-diabetes, you can reduce your risk of getting diabetes. With modest weight loss and moderate physical activity, you can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes and even return to normal glucose levels.

What are the signs of diabetes?

The signs of diabetes are:

·being very thirsty

·urinating often

·feeling very hungry or tired

·losing weight without trying

·having sores that heal slowly

·having dry, itchy skin

·losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet

·having blurry eyesight

You may have had one or more of these signs before you found out you had diabetes. Or you may have had no signs at all. A blood test to check your glucose levels will show if you have pre-diabetes or diabetes.

What kind of diabetes do you have?

People can get diabetes at any age. Type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is usually first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults. In this form of diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas no longer make insulin because the body's immune system has attacked and destroyed them.

Treatment for type 1 diabetes includes taking insulin shots or using an insulin pump, making wise food choices, being physically active, taking aspirin daily (for some), and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Type 2 diabetes , formerly called adult-onset diabetes or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, is the most common form of diabetes. People can develop type 2 diabetes at any age—even during childhood. This form of diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance, a condition in which fat, muscle, and liver cells do not use insulin properly.

At first, the pancreas keeps up with the added demand by producing more insulin. In time, however, it loses the ability to secrete enough insulin in response to meals. Being overweight and inactive increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

Treatment includes using diabetes medicines, making wise food choices, being physically active, taking aspirin daily, and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Why do you need to take care of your diabetes?
After many years, diabetes can lead to serious problems in your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and gums and teeth. But the most serious problem caused by diabetes is heart disease. When you have diabetes, you are more than twice as likely as people without diabetes to have heart disease or a stroke.

If you have diabetes, your risk of a heart attack is the same as someone who has already had a heart attack. Both women and men with diabetes are at risk. You may not even have the typical signs of a heart attack.

You can reduce your risk of developing heart disease by controlling your blood pressure and blood fat levels. If you smoke, talk with your doctor about quitting. Remember that every step toward your goals helps!

We'll tell you how you can try to prevent or delay long-term problems with information provided in our cache of articles about diabetes. The best way to take care of your health is to work with your health care team to keep your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol in your target range.

How is weight loss important?

If you have diabetes and are overweight, even a moderate reduction in weight can have a positive benefit to your health and possibly blood pressure and cholesterol. If you are overweight or obese and don’t have diabetes, you have added risk of developing the disease.

Overweight? Medifast Diabetic Diet proven safe and effective.

For more free articles on a variety of subjects that deal with Diabetes, please click the blue "Free Articles" banner near the top of our website, or CLICK HERE.

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Diabetes... Double Diabetes -- Placing Your Kids at Even More Risk Double Diabetes -- A New Phenomenon Placing Your Kids at Risk In some medical circles it's called Type 3 Diabetes. Teenagers and young adults diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, if overweight or obese, can develop type 2 diabetes later in life. It's a double whammy and the medical consequences of such a diagnosis don't look good. First, let's briefly cover the basics of diabetes. Diabetes is Elevated Blood Glucose Levels Higher than normal level of glucose in the blood is diabetes. Glucose is the main energy source for the brain and nerves and comes from digesting carbohydrates. Because of its importance as an energy source, glucose blood level is normally kept within a narrow range. Two hormones help to keep glucose in this normal range. First, there is insulin. Insulin is released by the pancreas as glucose levels rise after a meal. It promotes the uptake of glucose by muscle cells. Second, is glucogon. This hormone causes the release of glucose out of energy stores during fasting. The insulin to glucogon ratio helps to stabilize the normal levels of blood glucose. Two Types of Diabetes In order to have consistently high blood glucose levels either insulin production and/or release from the pancreas is defective or the muscles don't respond to insulin when it is released. Juvenile or Type 1 Diabetes -- Insulin production is defective. Most often detected early in life. These patients require insulin shots. Adult Onset or Type 2 Diabetes -- The muscles don't respond to insulin. In this case, glucose stays within the blood and not in the tissues. The early stage is called Insulin Resistance. Type 2 is associated with being overweight or obese. The Atypical Type of Diabetes -- Double Diabetes or Type 3 A young man who has type I diabetes, if he does...