Diabetes has almost become a household name to many. You won’t find people giving you a surprised look when you talk to them about diabetes. This disease is so common in today’s world that many people think Oh! It is just another disease and take it lightly. Beware! That is not the case in reality. Diabetes is a fatal disease and if left unattended can be life threatening.
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the human body either under performs or do not produce at all a hormone called insulin. This hormone is required for conversion of glucose (sugar), starches and other food into energy. The pancreas produces insulin.
Pancreas in our body produces a hormone called insulin. Insulin maintains a very narrow range of blood glucose level in our body. When the pancreas fails to produce this insulin or when the insulin produced does not work effectively, the blood glucose level becomes very high. This confirms diabetes.
There are three main types of diabetes:
Type -1 diabetes
Type- 2 diabetes and Gestational diabetes
In Type 1 diabetes, the cells in the pancreas responsible to make insulin are destroyed, causing severe shortage of insulin. While it is still not clear, it is broadly accepted in the medical world that the body attacks its own cells in the pancreas triggered due to reaction. This reaction could be due to infection with a specific virus or bacteria or exposure to toxins or due to some other reasons. These are only possibilities as nothing has been proven yet.
In Type 2 diabetes, the cells in the body fail to be stimulated by the action of insulin. In other words, these cells firmly show resistance to insulin. Due to this, insulin is over produced under excitement and finally the insulin manufacturing cells gets exhausted in the pancreas. Therefore, there is a situation where there is lack of insulin.
Gestational Diabetes takes place only in pregnant woman. These are mainly due to changes in the body that are taking place during pregnancy and therefore it becomes absolutely essential to get prenatal care and balanced proper diet throughout the pregnancy.
Diabetes if left unattended, can lead to severe complications. You will find bucket full of health issues if you ignore diabetes. Some of them are as below:
- Can lead to blindness due to eye disease (retinopathy)
- Can lead to amputation of arms or legs due to nerve disease (neuropathy)
- May have to receive dialysis treatment frequently due to kidney disease (nephropathy)
- Can lead to heart attacks and strokes.










March 25th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I don’t remember how much I’ve blogged about my fathers’s diagnosis of diabetes but its a tough one to live with for sure
March 25th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
It doesn’t matter how old your are but when you are diagnosed with diabetes you are going to have to deal with tough challenges throughout the rest of your life.