All About Diabetes

So: What is diabetes? Normally, when we eat, our bodies cleverly take in food and convert much of it into glucose. Glucose is a sugar that provides our bodies with energy — that's why it is found in energy drinks. But how is the energy extracted from the glucose?

That's where insulin comes in:

Insulin is a hormone made in your pancreas (that's an organ that lies near your stomach), and it helps to get the glucose into the cells all around your body. Unfortunately that process sometimes goes wrong and you are left with too much glucose in your blood; when that happens you are said to have Diabetes (the proper full term for this type of diabetes is "Diabetes Mellitus"; there are other types).

There are two main ways this can happen: either your body (well, the pancreas in your body) does not make enough insulin (or it makes none at all) — this is called Type 1 Diabetes — or the insulin that is produced is not being used properly by your body — this is called Type 2 Diabetes. There are other types of Diabetes (such as Gestational Diabetes, which happens during pregnancy, Pre-Diabetes, and Diabetes Insipidus, the last of which has nothing to do with glucose).

If you have certain types of diabetes, you must realise that you will have it for the rest of your life — there is no cure (but certain specific types of diabetes naturally go away). But equally there is no reason why you cannot live a full and rewarding life similar to anyone else. But if you are not careful then Diabetes can lead to serious health complications such as kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputation of toes, feet, or legs.

But how do you get diabetes? How do you know you have it? Can you do anything to avoid having it in the first place? And if you do have diabetes, how do you control it, and what changes have to be made to your life style?

On this web mini-site we look at diabetes from all angles, concentrating on the various forms of Diabetes Mellitus, including Types 1 and 2, Gestational Diabetes, and Pre-Diabetes; but we do touch of other forms such as Diabetes Insipidus. You can look up the symptoms, find out how diabetes is diagnosed, how you learn to live with it, including changes to your eating habits, and what can go wrong if you aren't careful.

We hope you find this site useful — as a first step you might want to take a look at our Diabetes FAQ.