Diabetes Management
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a group of diseases with different types of classification, depending on how they develop. All result from a mix-up in the way your body processes the sugar you need for energy. Your lifestyle, such as exercise and diet, also plays a role in diabetes. In the end, the disease results from a combination of nature — how your body behaves — and nurture — how you treat your body.
Type 1 diabetes develops when your pancreas doesn't make enough insulin. This used to be known as insulin-dependent diabetes — because you have to take insulin — or juvenile diabetes — because it most often develops during childhood. Those names have fallen out of favor because they're not entirely accurate. For instance, people with other types of diabetes might also need insulin and adults, not just juveniles, can also develop this type of diabetes
Insulin is a hormone that is secreted into your bloodstream when you eat. As insulin circulates, it allows sugar to enter your cells. Insulin lowers the amount of sugar in your bloodstream.
Type 2 diabetes arises when the body loses sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that shuttles the sugars from food into body cells to be used for energy. As a result, the amount of sugar, or glucose, in the blood remains high, leading to potential symptoms such as fatigue and blurred vision. Over the long term, uncontrolled blood glucose can increase the risk for complications such as heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage and blindness.
Gestational diabetes generally develops during the second half of pregnancy, especially in the third trimester. It usually goes away after pregnancy. But more than half of all women with gestational diabetes eventually develop type 2 diabetes.
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Other causes of diabetes
Some 1 to 2 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes result from illnesses or medications that can interfere with the production of insulin or how it works. Examples include: pancreatitis, removal of the pancreas, adrenal or pituitary gland disorders, corticosteroid treatment for other diseases, certain blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering medications, malnutrition, and infection.
Pancreatitis is a term used to describe inflammation in the pancreas, a gland in the abdomen that produces enzymes that help digestion and regulate the way your body processes sugar.
What is pre-diabetes?
Pre-diabetes is the state in which the blood sugar levels rise above the normal range but do not yet meet the criteria for the diagnosis of diabetes. If pre-diabetes is left unchecked, diabetes can result. But, with successful changes in diet, exercise, and lifestyle, eventual weight loss can help decrease blood sugar levels to a healthy range. Download the pre-diabetes handout [PDF] for more information.
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Diabetes Knowledge
"Hyperglycemia" is a common medical term used to refer to high (hyper) blood sugar (glycemia) and may indicate diabetes. Several types of blood tests can measure blood sugar. The preferred way to test your blood sugar is after you have not eaten overnight or for at least eight hours.
The amount of sugar in your blood naturally varies, but within a narrow range. Following an overnight fast, most people have levels between 70 and 110 mg/dl. Doctors consider this range normal.
If your blood sugar is 126 mg/dl or greater on two separate occasions after fasting overnight, your physician may diagnose you with diabetes. If your blood sugar level measures between 111 and 125 mg/dl, you may have what is called impaired fasting blood sugar. Doctors now commonly refer to this as pre-diabetes. This means that you are at high risk of developing diabetes and should take steps to control your blood sugar.
Some of the steps that you can take to decrease your risk of diabetes include:
- Try to get activity in your daily life (at least 30 minutes of accumulated activity daily)
- Eat your five fruits and vegetables daily
- Decrease your consumption of foods that are high in saturated fat (high-fat meats, high-fat dairy products, fried foods, some highly processed foods)
- Find some stress relief in your daily rigorous life
- Weight loss: 5-10% reduction in your current body weight
Online Video Tutorials
The Joslin Interactive Learning Center has created a series of courses that make learning about diabetes and how to effectively manage the disease interactive and fun. These tutorials are free, but you may be asked to register.
Medline Plus offers health education resources from the Patient Education Institute. These resources are interactive and use animated graphics to explain different aspects of diabetes care. The following tutorials are available:
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