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Diabetes Facts and Statistics

What is it?

Diabetes is a disease where the body cannot properly produce or use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that turns the foods you eat into energy. If your body cannot turn food into energy, not only will your cells be starved for energy, you will also build up glucose (sugar) in your blood. This will lead you to have "high blood glucose levels." Over years, the high blood glucose level can damage major organs like your heart, eyes, and kidneys.

Statistics:

According to the American Diabetes Association, there are 18.2 million people in the United States with Diabetes. That’s 6.3% of the population. [more]

Types of Diabetes

Before we start discussion about type of diabetes we must know what exactly is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism—the digestion system of our body for growth and energy. Almost every food we eat broken down to glucose, the form or sugar which is the fuel for our body.

After digestion, glucose passes into the bloodstream, where it is used by cells for growth and energy. For glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.

When we eat, the pancreas automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into our cells. For the people having diabetes this is the place of disorder, there pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced. [more]

Diabetes in Children is on the Rise

Diabetes! Why Must So Many Children Suffer?

Diabetes, the body's inability to metabolize sugar properly, is something that most people have to just live with for the rest of their lives. You can control it, of course, with proper diet and by taking medication. But the fact that an increasing number of young children and adolescents are prone to it nowadays is a cause for concern.... [more]

Understanding Diabetes

To manage diabetes, it helps to understand how it affects your body. In healthy people, the body turns food into glucose (blood sugar) to use for energy. Insulin, produced by the pancreas, is the hormone responsible for shuttling glucose into the body's cells where it is either used right away or stored for later use. With diabetes, however, high levels of glucose build up in the blood because either the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin or the body can't use the insulin it produces. Your treatment will depend on which problem you have.

Diabetes is broken down into three categories: type 1 or type 2 or gestational. [more]

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