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What Is Diabetes?What is diabetes actually? You hear of it frequently and people around you have been buying diabetes supplies, telling you that they need to start on their diabetes recipes regime and re-stocking their insulin syringes or insulin pumps so regularly that you often wonder what really is diabetes? Diabetes mellitus has been on the rise in the world, particularly when people are becoming more affluent, our lifestyles are more sedentary and our population is ageing rapidly. So, What Is Diabetes? - Diabetes mellitus, commonly referred to as diabetes, is a long-term illness characterized by a
high sugar (or glucose) level
in the blood. Someone with diabetes is either producing too little insulin or is unable to respond well to the insulin produced. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to play roles. As such, food do play a very important role in controlling diabetes and people suffering from diabetes should watch their diet and in fact try to get diabetic recipes to help them stick to the discipline of eating right.
The Singapore Ministry of Health's Healthy Lifestyle survey in 1992 showed:
Prevalence rates of diabetes rises with age:
Diabetes is a chronic disease and, if not managed well with its appropriate diabetes supplies, can deteriorate steadily to cause devastating complications such as blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, heart disease and limb amputation. Studies show that about half of patients already have diabetes-related complications at the time of diagnosis. So if you are laughing at someone sticking strictly to his diabetic recipes, think again! If it's to be taken lightly, our television programs will not have recently added shows into its prime time slots like :
"Don't Ignore Diabetes"! (opens in a new window)
There are two main types of diabetes, and your lingering question on "What is Diabetes" will be enlightened from here : Type 1 (Insulin-dependent) diabetes What is diabetes (Type 1)?
The warning symptoms of type I diabetes include:
These symptoms usually occur suddenly and can be life-threatening. Prompt treatment is necessary.
What is diabetes (Type II)?
Persons with type II diabetes often have no warning symptoms, and only discover the disease when they have a routine blood test, or develop complications. If warning symptoms occur, these may include:
These symptoms usually occur gradually. Early treatment improves the chances of preventing or delaying complications. You now know what is diabetes and if someone do ask you to explain what is diabetes, you have the information like a pro to explain it to them, else, just send them to our site!
Gestational Diabetes By now, you will have grasp the basics on what is diabetes, and for some ladies, this is something you need to know about as well....Pregnant women who have never had diabetes before but who have high blood sugar (glucose) levels during pregnancy are said to have gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes affects about 4% of all pregnant women. Causes of gestational diabetes is unknown, but we have some clues. The placenta supports the baby as it grows. Hormones from the placenta help the baby develop. But these hormones also block the action of the mother's insulin in her body. This problem is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance makes it hard for the mother's body to use insulin. She may need up to three times as much insulin. Gestational diabetes starts when your body is not able to make and use all the insulin it needs for pregnancy. Without enough insulin, glucose cannot leave the blood and be changed to energy. Glucose builds up in the blood to high levels. This is called hyperglycemia. How gestational diabetes can affect your baby Gestational diabetes affects the mother in late pregnancy, after the baby's body has been formed, but while the baby is busy growing. Because of this, gestational diabetes does not cause the kinds of birth defects sometimes seen in babies whose mothers had diabetes before pregnancy. However, untreated or poorly controlled gestational diabetes can hurt your baby. When you have gestational diabetes, your pancreas works overtime to produce insulin, but the insulin does not lower your blood glucose levels. Although insulin does not cross the placenta, glucose and other nutrients do. So extra blood glucose goes through the placenta, giving the baby high blood glucose levels. This causes the baby's pancreas to make extra insulin to get rid of the blood glucose. Since the baby is getting more energy than it needs to grow and develop, the extra energy is stored as fat. 
This can lead to macrosomia, or a "fat" baby. Babies with macrosomia face health problems of their own, including damage to their shoulders during birth. Because of the extra insulin made by the baby's pancreas, newborns may have very low
blood glucose levels
at birth and are also at higher risk for breathing problems. Babies with excess insulin become children who are at risk for obesity and adults who are at risk for type 2 diabetes. Treating gestational diabetes Gestational diabetes can hurt you and your baby, you need to start treatment quickly. Treatment for gestational diabetes aims to keep blood glucose levels equal to those of pregnant women who don't have gestational diabetes. Treatment for gestational diabetes always includes special meal plans (diabetes recipes) and scheduled physical activity. It may also include daily blood glucose testing and insulin administering, preferably with insulin pumps. You will need help from your doctor, nurse educator, and other members of your health care team so that your treatment for gestational diabetes can be changed as needed and that you get the correct diabetes supplies that's necessary. For you as the mother-to-be, treatment for gestational diabetes helps lower the risk of a cesarean section birth that very large babies may require. Sticking with your treatment for gestational diabetes will give you a healthy pregnancy and birth, and may help your baby avoid future poor health.
Risk Factor Before you go asking what is diabetes and what are the risks that can arise from it? Well, you might want to know that most people with diabetes have health problems -- or risk factors -- such as high blood pressure and cholesterol that increases one's risk for heart disease and stroke. When combined with diabetes, these risk factors add up to big trouble. In fact, more than 65% of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke. With diabetes, heart attacks occur earlier in life and often result in death. By managing diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, people with diabetes can reduce their risk. Prevention You now know what is diabetes and even though diabetes mellitus is a controllable disease, the combination of diabetes and other risk factors decreases your chance of living a normal life span. It is very important that you take steps before you are diagnosed with diabetes to prevent its onset or to delay the onset as long as possible. The single most important step you can take in the prevention of diabetes is to live a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle includes many different aspects of your life. Eating a healthy diet is essential to helping your body to perform its normal tasks as naturally as possible.....So it doesn't mean that you need to be a diabetic to start following strictly to diabetes recipes....you can even commence on adhering to one even when you are healthy! A regular exercise routine is essential to maintaining a healthy weight and in keeping your muscles toned, which allows your muscles to assist your internal organs in performing their tasks. Avoiding stress, or learning how to deal with stress in a healthy manner, helps your brain and nervous system to work with other parts of your body to perform the tasks needed to sustain life. Whether you know what is diabetes or not, it is important that you realize how your body works together. Beginning a healthy lifestyle as early as possible gives you the best chance to avoid the risks associated with diabetes mellitus – and decreases the chances of the other factors that may come into play – thereby decreasing your risks of more serious diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Both your physical condition and your mental condition play an important role in your overall health....and with that, I hope your question on what is diabetes has been answered and hopefully, through healthy lifestyles (such as exercising and eating right foods and maybe following some diabetes recipes), we can all avoid or at least delay of having to use insulin syringes and any of the diabetes supplies which accompanies this illness, as it is a long term care, once it strikes! As always, knowing what is diabetes or what is diabetes mellitus and its risks and prevention is of no use, if one doesn't take action with the knowledge acquired and put it into good use; so our encouragement to you is that you not only practice what you have learnt, but spread the word as well!
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When food is digested, it breaks down into a sugar called glucose, which is absorbed into the blood. In a normal person, insulin helps the
