What is Diabetes?

Did you know... A balanced diet and exercise are part of treatment plans for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Having diabetes means your body doesn't make enough insulin or doesn't use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone made by a gland near your stomach called the pancreas. Your body uses insulin to carry sugar from your bloodstream to your cells. Sugar is the fuel your body needs for all your activities –whether it's breathing, reading, walking or running. Your body changes the food you eat into a sugar called glucose.

When you have diabetes, sugar isn't carried properly to your cells so too much sugar stays in your bloodstream. This is called hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar. Left untreated, high blood sugar can cause a lot of damage to your body.

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, but it often occurs in children and young adults. It is sometimes called juvenile diabetes. With type 1 diabetes, your body makes little or no insulin.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. It usually occurs in people over the age of 40 but you can get it at any age. With type 2 diabetes, your body does not make enough insulin or your cells resist the insulin you body makes.

What is Gestational Diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that occurs only in pregnant women who have never had diabetes. Although the exact causes are not known, a small number of women develop insulin resistance at about the 24th week of pregnancy, making it difficult for their body to use insulin. Gestational diabetes begins when the body is unable to make and use all the insulin it needs for pregnancy. Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in the blood to higher than normal levels. This surplus of blood glucose passes through the placenta, so the baby ends up with high blood glucose levels which can cause him/her to store too much fat. Gestational diabetes usually goes away once the baby is born.

Although most women with gestational diabetes have healthy babies, it needs to be treated until the baby is born. Keeping blood sugar as near normal as possible will prevent problems for both mother and baby.

Learn more about gestational diabetes.

Source: American Diabetes Association