What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is known as a group of diseases that tampers with the way the body uses glucose. Glucose is integral to health as it’s a vital way for the cells to gain the energy to make the muscles and tissues. It is also the main source of power for the brain. The reason to why diabetes happens to a person depends on the type but all diabetes leads to excess sugar in the blood and that can lead to severe health problems. Diabetes can and is usually chronic, type 1 and type 2, but it may be reversible with it being prediabetes or gestational diabetes. Prediabetes occurs when glucose levels are high, but not high enough to cause diabetes while gestational happens during pregnancy and usually leaves after pregnancy. The cause for Type 1 diabetes is unknown but it is when the body attacks insulin-producing cells leaving it with little to no insulin. Type 2 diabetes seems to be caused by genetic and environmental factors, even linked to obesity issues, though not all type 2 diabetics are overweight. With this type of diabetes, the cells become resistant to the insulin and so the pancreas cannot keep creating enough of it to overcome the resistance. If diabetes is not treated it can lead to foot damage, eye damage, skin conditions, hearing impairment, Alzheimer's disease, nerve damage and more. 

Treatment 

While it’s not curable, there are multiple ways to treat diabetes. The main treatment is insulin therapy where insulin is periodically needed to be injected in the diabetic patient to survive and there are many different ways to do this. The method that is used depends on the patient and situation. Monitoring blood sugar is another type of treatment where it’s checked on regularly and is made sure that it does not go too high by triggering it like drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, eating more food than needed, managing illness and stress, etc. Additional treatment includes a pancreas treatment, medication and bariatric surgery. 

HospitALL provides the best doctors for diabetes treatment.