Bringing diabetic awareness to your fingertips

Gabe’s Guardians

Diabetes Information

There are many different sites to obtain information regarding diabetes.  For this purpose, I have utilized the information provided within the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) sites. 

What is Diabetes?

 

Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease affecting every organ system. There are two major types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that enables people to get energy from food.

 

Type 1 diabetes usually strikes in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood, but lasts a lifetime. People with type 1 diabetes must take multiple injections of insulin daily or continuous infusion of insulin through a pump just to survive.

 

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which a person’s body still produces insulin but is unable to use it effectively. Type 2 is usually diagnosed in adulthood and does not always require insulin injections. However, increased obesity has led to a recent “epidemic” in cases of type 2 diabetes in young adults.

 

Taking insulin does not cure any type of diabetes nor prevent the possibility of its eventual and devastating effects: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack, and stroke.  (JDRF)

 

Approximately 18 million people in the United States, or 6.2% of the population, have diabetes.  While an estimated 11.1 million have been diagnosed, unfortunately, 5.9 million people (or one-third) are unaware that they have the disease.

There is also another “category” of diabetes: Pre-diabetes.  Pre-diabetes is a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.  It is estimated that at least 16 million Americans have pre-diabetes, in addition to the 17 million with diabetes.   In addition,  approximately 4 percent of all pregnant women, or 135,000 cases in the United States each year are affected by gestational diabetes during their pregnancy, requiring monitoring and treatment. (ADA)

The face of diabetes: It looks like you and I.