What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is the name given to a group of conditions in which too much glucose/sugar remains in the blood. Here’s what happens:

The body needs a special sugar called glucose as its main source of fuel or energy. The body makes glucose from foods containing carbohydrate (sugar and starch) such as vegetables (like potatoes or corn) and cereal foods (like bread, pasta and rice) as well as fruit and milk. Glucose is carried around the body in the blood at a level, which must be neither too high nor too low, but within a specific range. This range is ideally between 3.5 – 8.00 mm/l. The body does not function at its best if the glucose levels are constantly higher or lower than this optimal range.

The glucose, made from carbohydrate, moves from the bowel (gut) into the blood stream and then into the body tissues such as the muscles and organs. It’s the cells in the body tissues that need the energy to do the work – brain cells so you can think, heart cells so you can pump blood and muscle cells so you can move.

This is where insulin enters the story. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas, a gland sitting just behind the stomach. Insulin opens the cell “doors” (the glucose channels) to let glucose pass from the blood to the body cells where energy is made and used.

This process is called glucose metabolism. In diabetes, the pancreas either cannot make insulin (as in Type 1 diabetes) or it does not make enough good quality insulin or the cells are resistant to taking up the insulin (as in Type 2 diabetes). When insulin is unable to work effectively the glucose cannot enter the body’s cells. Thus glucose builds up in the blood leading to high blood glucose levels, which causes the symptoms of diabetes.

Are there different types of diabetes?
Yes. There are two main types of diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2. Type 2 diabetes has two known pre-diabetic conditions.