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| What is Diabetes? |  Diabetes is widespread disorder of metabolism. Perhaps everybody knows someone who has diabetes. Approximately 18.2 million of Americans suffer from diabetes.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a disorder that affects our metabolism. This process helps our body use digested food for growth and energy. Many foods we consume disintegrate into glucose that contained in our blood. It is the main source of fuel for the body.
After digestion, glucose moves to the bloodstream. Bloodstream carries it to the cells which use glucose for growth and energy. For getting glucose into cells, insulin must be present. Pancreas produces this hormone.
While eating the pancreas produces the proper quantity of insulin that is needed to transmit glucose from blood into cells. Pancreas of people with diabetes produces little quantity of insulin or doesn’t produce it at all. Sometimes it happens that cells do not react appropriately to the insulin that is produced. Glucose accumulates in the blood, gets into the urine, and passes out of the body. In that way, the body loses its essential source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.
There are tree main types of diabetes. They are:
- type 1 diabetes
- type 2 diabetes
- gestational diabetes
Pre-diabetes
People with pre-diabetes have higher than normal blood glucose levels. But it is not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. This condition increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Pre-diabetes is also called impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), depending on the test performed to diagnose it. Some people have both IFG and IGT.
- IFG means that the blood glucose level is high after an overnight fast. But it is not enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
- IGT means that the blood glucose level is high after a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test. But it is not enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
Lots of people with pre-diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years.
There is good news: if you have pre-diabetes, you can do a lot to prevent or delay diabetes. It has been proved that you can reduce your chances of developing diabetes by losing 5 to 7% of your body weight through diet and increased physical activity.
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