Diabetes

What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease in which your body is unable to properly use and store glucose (a form of sugar). Glucose backs up in the bloodstream -- causing your blood glucose or "sugar" to rise too high.

The different types of Diabetes:

There are two major types of diabetes.
Type 1(also called juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent) diabetes, in this type of diabetes the body completely stops producing any insulin (a hormone that enables your body to use glucose found in food). As is evident with the name, this type of diabetes affects young adults. Also, people with Type 1 diabetes are totally insulin deficient and therefore must take daily insulin injections to survive.

Type 2(also called adult-onset or non insulin-dependent) diabetes, in this type of disease, the body does produce insulin, but not enough to properly convert food into energy. This form of diabetes usually occurs in people who are over 40, overweight, and have a family history of diabetes.

Different features of Diabetes:
Though people with diabetes experience many symptoms, the presence of the classical triad of:

• being very thirsty
• increased hunger
• having to go to the bathroom very frequently to urinate is virtually diagnostic of diabetes.

In addition following symptoms may also be present:

• weight loss
• wounds that don't heal
• and/or extreme unexplained fatigue

In some cases, there are no symptoms -- this happens at times with type 2 diabetes. In this case, people can live for months, even years without knowing they have the disease. This form of diabetes comes on so gradually that symptoms may not even be recognized.

Who gets diabetes?
Diabetes can occur in anyone but the presence of following factors increases the likelihood of getting diabetes.
People who have close relatives with the disease.
People who are over 40 and overweight
People of African-American, Hispanic or Asian heritage.
Also, people who develop diabetes while pregnant (a condition called gestational diabetes) are more likely to develop full-blown diabetes later in life.

Treatment