Diabetes

Diabetes

Almost everyone knows someone who has diabetes. An estimated 16 million people in the United States have diabetes mellitus—which is a serious lifelong condition. About one-third of these 16 million people have not been diagnosed. Each year, about 800,000 people are diagnosed with diabetes.(NIDDK)

Figure 1--Prevalence of diabetes in men and women in the U.S. population age 20 years or older, based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Diabetes includes previously diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes defined by fasting plasma glucose greater than or equal to 126 mg/dL. (age-std=age-standardized)

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism—the way our bodies use digested food for growth and energy. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose, the form of sugar in the blood. Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body.

After digestion, glucose passes into the bloodstream, where it is used by cells for growth and energy. For glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.

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Insulin is produced in the pancreas, an organ that sits behind your stomach.

When we eat, the pancreas is automatically supposed to produce the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into our cells. In people who have diabetes, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond in the right way to the insulin that is produced. Glucose builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine, and passes out of the body.

Therefore, the body loses its main source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.

Compare the human body to a car. To start a car, you must turn the key to move the gas to the engine. Similarly, the glucose in your bloodstream cannot go into the cells by itself. The pancreas releases a substance called insulin into the blood, which serves as the helper, or the “key” that lets the glucose into the cells for use as energy. When glucose enters your cells, the level of glucose in your bloodstream decreases. Without insulin, glucose cannot get into the body’s cells for use as energy. This increases the levels of glucose in your blood. Too much glucose in the blood is called “high blood sugar” or diabetes.(NIDDK)

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... of diagnosing diabetes in which blood glucose is tested without regard to the time since the person’s last meal. A glucose level greater than 200 mg/dl may indicate diabetes, especially if the test is repeated at a later time and indicates results. The oral glucose tolerance test is another method used to detect diabetes, but is not recommended or routinely done except during pregnancy.(Cleveland Clinic)

You hold the Keys to managing your diabetes by:

Planning what you eat and following a balanced meal plan.

Exercising regularly

Taking medication, if prescribed, and closely following the guidelines on how and when to take it.

Monitoring your blood glucose and blood pressure levels at home.

Keeping your appointments with your health-care providers and having laboratory tests completed as ordered by your doctor.

What you do at home every day affects your blood glucose more than what your doctor can do every few months during your checkups.(NIDDK)

Bibliography

NIDDK. http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/diabetes/pubs/dmover/dmover.htm (November 1998)

The Cleveland Clinic. http://www.onhealth.webmd.com/conditions/condctr/db/item,105964.asp (November2000)