Diabetes

It is a lifelong or chronic disease in which there are high levels of sugar in your blood. Diabetes affects more than 20 million americans, and over 40 million americans have pre-diabetes (early type 2 diabetes). 

A single measurement of elevated blood sugar is not enough to make the diagnosis of diabetes, unless the level is way high and you also have symptoms consistent with diabetes.

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that it’s job is to control blood sugar. Diabetes can be caused by too little insulin, a resistance to insulin, or both. To understand diabetes it is important to understand first the normal process by which food is broken down by your body for energy. Several things happen when food is digested. A sugar called glucose, enters the bloodstream. Glucose is the source of energy for your body. An organ called the pancreas (sits in the top part of your abdomen) secretes insulin. The role of this hormone is to move sugar from the bloodstream into the muscle, fat, and liver cells where it can be used as fuel.

In people with diabetes, the body cannot move the sugar into the right cells  and be stored for energy. This happens because the pancreas

is not making enough insulin
the cells do not respond to the insulin
or both

There are 3 major types of diabetes and the causes and risk factors are different for each kind.
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Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which your blood sugar level is too high. The causes of type 2 diabetes and why it is important to keep it under control, are explained.

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