Diabetes

Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body produces too little insulin or can't use available insulin efficiently. Insulin is a hormone vital to helping the body use digested food for growth and energy.

An estimated 20.8 million Americans (seven percent of the population) have diabetes, and each year about 1.3 million more aged 20 or older are diagnosed with the disorder, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Untreated, diabetes can cause long-term complications that affect almost every part of the body. Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death in the US, however diabetes is likely to be underreported as the underlying cause of death on death certificates.

You are at higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes if you are overweight, don't exercise and are over 30, or if you have close relatives with diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes. Higher-risk ethnic groups include African American, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander American heritage. These groups of people have twice the risk of Caucasians for developing type 2 diabetes.

Although diabetes is a potentially life-threatening condition, people with well-managed diabetes can expect to live healthy lifestyles.

How Diabetes Develops

Much of the food we eat is broken down by digestive juices into a simple sugar called glucose, which is the body's main source of energy. Glucose passes into the bloodstream and, from there, into cells, which use it for energy.

However, most cells require the hormone insulin to "unlock" them so glucose can enter. Insulin is normally produced by beta cells in the pancreas (a large gland located behind the stomach). In healthy people, the process of eating signals the pancreas to produce the right amount of insulin to enable the glucose from the food to get into cells. If this process fails or doesn't work properly, diabetes develops.

In people with diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin, or the body's cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. As a result, glucose builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine and passes out of the body. Thus, the body loses its main source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.