Diabetes is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Blood glucose is your main source of energy and comes from the food you eat. Insulin, a hormone made by your pancreas, helps glucose from food get into your cells to be used for energy. Over time, having too much glucose in your blood can cause health problems. Although diabetes has no cure, you can take steps to manage your diabetes and stay healthy.
Types of diabetes:
- Prediabetes is when your blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be called diabetes. Having prediabetes is serious because it raises your chance of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Type 1. If you have type 1 diabetes, your body does not make enough insulin. Your immune system attacks and destroys the cells in your pancreas that make insulin. Type 1 is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, although can appear at any age. People with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin every day to stay alive.
- Type 2. If you have type 2 diabetes your body does not make or use insulin well. You can develop type 2 diabetes at any age, even during childhood. However, this type of diabetes occurs most often in middle-aged and older people. Type 2 is the most common types of diabetes.
- Gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes develops in some women when they are pregnant. Most of the time, this type of diabetes goes away after the baby is born. However, if you’ve had gestational diabetes, you have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
- Less common types include monogenic diabetes, which is an inherited form of diabetes, and cystic fibrosis-related diabetes.
Symptoms of Diabetes Type 1 and Type 2:
- Frequent urination
- Thirst
- Unexplained weight loss
- Extreme hunger
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Slow healing sores
- Blurred vision
- Frequent infections, such as germs or skin infections and vaginal infections.
Anyone who has symptoms of diabetes should be tested for the disease. Testing allows health care professionals to find diabetes sooner and work with their patients to manage diabetes and prevent complications. The earlier the condition is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can begin. If you have already been diagnosed with diabetes, you will need close medical follow-up until your sugar levels stabilize.