Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. 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.
There are 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease.
If not controlled, diabetes can lead to blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputations and nerve damage. In women, diabetes can cause problems during pregnancy and make it more likely that your baby will be born with birth defects.
What Is Pre-Diabetes?
Pre-diabetes means your blood sugar is higher than normal but lower than the diabetes range. It also means you are at risk of getting type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The good news is: You can reduce the risk of getting diabetes and even return to normal blood sugar levels with modest weight loss and moderate physical activity.
What Are the Different Types of Diabetes?
The three main types of diabetes are:
Type 1 diabetes is commonly diagnosed in children and young adults, but it’s a lifelong condition. If you have this type of diabetes, your body does not make insulin, so you must take insulin every day. Treatment for type 1 diabetes includes taking insulin shots or using an insulin pump, eating healthy, exercising regularly, taking aspirin daily (for some), and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes—about nine out of 10 people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. You can get type 2 diabetes at any age, even during childhood. In type 2 diabetes, your body makes insulin, but the insulin can’t do its job, so sugar is not getting into the cells. Treatment includes taking medicine, eating healthy, exercising regularly, taking aspirin daily (for some), and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.
Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy. This type of diabetes occurs in about one in 20 pregnancies. During pregnancy your body makes hormones that keep insulin from doing its job. To make up for this, your body makes extra insulin. But in some women this extra insulin is not enough, so they get gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes usually goes away when the pregnancy is over. Women who have had gestational diabetes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
Who Gets Diabetes?
About 20 million Americans have diabetes, about half of whom are women.
Type 1 diabetes occurs at about the same rate in men and women, but it is more common in white people than in minorities.
Type 2 diabetes is more common in older people, mainly in people who are overweight. It is more common in African Americans, Hispanic Americans/Latinos and American Indians.
What Causes Diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes tends to show up after a person is exposed to a trigger, such as a virus, which can start an attack on the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. There is no one cause for type 2 diabetes, but it seems to run in families, and most people who get type 2 diabetes are overweight.
Gestational diabetes—Weight gain and changing hormones are part of a healthy pregnancy, but these changes make it hard for your body to keep up with its need for insulin. When that happens, your body doesn’t get the energy it needs from the foods you eat.
Am I At Risk?
Things that can put you at risk for diabetes include:
• Age—being older than 45
• Overweight or obesity
• Family history—having a mother, father, brother, or sister with diabetes
• Having a baby with a birth weight more than nine pounds
• Having diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes)
• High blood pressure—140/90 mm HG or higher. Both numbers are important. If one or both numbers are usually high, you have high blood pressure.
• High cholesterol—total cholesterol over 240 mg/dL
• Inactivity—exercising fewer than three times a week
• Abnormal results in a prior diabetes test
• Having other health conditions that are linked to problems using insulin, like Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
• Having a history of heart disease or stroke.
Should I Be Tested?
If you’re at least 45 years old, you should get tested for diabetes, and then you should be tested again every three years. If you’re 45 or older and overweight (calculate your Body Mass Index) you may want to get tested more often. If you’re younger than 45, overweight, and have one or more of the risk factors listed, you should get tested now.
Ask your doctor for a fasting blood glucose test or an oral glucose tolerance test. Your doctor will tell you if you have normal blood glucose (blood sugar), pre-diabetes, or diabetes.
What Are the Signs of Diabetes?
• Being very thirsty
• Urinating frequently
• Feeling very hungry
• Losing weight without trying
• Sores that are slow to heal
• Dry, itchy skin
• Tingling in the hands or feet
• Blurry vision
• More infections than usual.
If you have one or more of these signs, see your doctor.
