November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Over the past 20 years in the US, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has doubled. This common disease can have huge impacts on the lives of those with the disease, their families, and our society. It’s a big topic so we will continue this discussion over the next couple of weeks.
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a long-term health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. Most of the food you eat is broken down into sugars (including glucose) and other nutrients. Glucose is a very important source of energy for the cells that make up the muscles and tissues, and the brain’s main source of fuel.
When glucose is released into your bloodstream after you eat, your blood sugar goes up, which triggers your pancreas to send out insulin, a hormone that helps the sugar enter your body’s cells. With diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use it as well as it should. This leads to too much sugar staying in your blood, and not enough getting into the individual cells to use for energy.In the short term, this can lead to some life-threatening problems, especially if your body totally stops producing insulin. Over time, high blood sugar levels can cause serious health problems like heart disease, vision loss, nerve damage, vascular disease, and kidney disease.
How Common is Diabetes?
Diabetes is very common—more than 37 million Americans have it, and about 1 in 5 don’t know they have it. Nearly 98 million have prediabetes, which we will talk more about. Early detection and management are key to living well with diabetes or preventing prediabetes from progressing to diabetes.
What Are the Different Types of Diabetes?
There are a few main types of diabetes, each with different causes and risk factors:
- Type 1 Diabetes – This type happens when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-making cells in the pancreas. It usually develops in children, teens, or young adults, but can happen at any age. People with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin every day.
- Type 2 Diabetes – This is the most common form. It happens when the body doesn’t use insulin well or doesn’t make enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes can develop at any age, but it’s more common in adults. Lifestyle changes and medication can help manage this type, which may include insulin for some patients.
- Gestational Diabetes – This type develops during pregnancy in women who have never had diabetes. It usually goes away after the baby is born, but it raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
- Prediabetes – This isn’t diabetes yet, but blood sugar levels are higher than normal. Without lifestyle changes, prediabetes can lead to type 2 diabetes.
What Are the Symptoms of Diabetes?
Diabetes symptoms can be mild and sometimes they even go unnoticed, especially in the early stages. Some people may not have any symptoms at all. However, sometimes symptoms can happen abruptly and be life-threatening, particularly in type 1 diabetes, or if type 2 diabetes is not diagnosed early. Knowing the signs can help you or a loved one get diagnosed and start treatment sooner.
- Urinating often
- Feeling very thirsty or hungry
- Feeling very tired
- Blurry vision, often happening intermittently
- Sores that heal slowly
- Recurrent vaginal yeast infections in women
- Unexplained weight loss or loss of appetite (more common in type 1 diabetes)
- Tingling or numbness in hands or feet (more common in type 2 diabetes)
If you notice any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar checked.
If you have any questions about diabetes, please log into your account and send us your question. We are here to help.
Dr. Anita Bennett MD – Health Tip Content Editor