What is Diabetes?

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic condition caused by too much glucose in your blood. Your blood sugar level can be too high if your body does not make enough of the hormone insulin. Insulin is produced by the pancreas (a gland behind the stomach) and moves glucose out of the blood and into cells, where it is broken down to produce energy.

If diabetes is not treated it can cause long-term health problems because the high glucose levels in the blood damage the blood vessels.

There are two types of diabetes.
Type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes.
In type 1 diabetes the body produces little or no insulin. Someone with this type of diabetes needs treatment for the rest of their life. They must check the levels of glucose in their blood regularly and watch out for complications. Type I diabetes is also known as juvenile diabetes or early onset diabetes because it usually develops before the age of 40, often in the teenage years.

Type 2 or non-insulin dependent diabetes.
In type 2 diabetes the body does not make enough insulin or cannot use insulin properly. This type of diabetes is usually linked with obesity. It used to be referred to as maturity onset diabetes because it occurs mostly in people over the age of 40.

Some pregnant women have such high levels of glucose in their blood that their body cannot produce enough insulin to absorb it all. This is known as gestational diabetes or diabetes in pregnancy. It affects less than 1 in 20 pregnant women. Gestational diabetes usually disappears after the baby is born. However, women who develop gestational diabetes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life.

Diabetes affects 1.3 million people in the UK and there may be as many as a million more people who have the condition but do not know it yet. Nine out of ten people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes and over 80% of these people are overweight.

More Information on Diabetes.