All about diabetes
Diabetes in a nutshell
If you've just been diagnosed with diabetes, you must be wondering what exactly it is and how it affects your body. What are insulin and glucose and what do they do? Here are some answers.
So, what is diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus (the full name for diabetes) is a common condition in which the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood is too high because the body is unable to use it properly. This is because the body's way of converting glucose into energy is not working as it should.
The key players
Insulin is a hormone (a chemical messenger) that carefully controls the amount of glucose in your blood. Insulin is made by a gland called the pancreas, which lies just behind the stomach.
Glucose from food gives your body energy, and insulin acts as a 'key' to the 'lock' in the cells that need glucose. The cells use glucose as fuel for your body. Glucose comes from the digestion of starchy foods such as bread, rice, potatoes, chapattis, yams and plantain, and from sweet foods.
What does diabetes do to me?
When you have diabetes, the glucose in your body is not turned into energy. The glucose stays locked outside the cells, making you feel tired and unwell. This is because your body is not making enough insulin - or none at all.
Diabetes and the body
See our short animation which explains how diabetes affects the body.
Your comments
OMG i remember this girl when i was diagnoses that she was like omg stay away from her, you'll catch diabetes. I get so annoyed when people say and do stuff like that. Its an illness that you cant just forget or give away. Us diabetics are stuck with diabetes for life but we still do what we did before. Its abit annoying and upseting when we cant eat because our sugars are high but in the end if we just eat and eat and dont do anything we could end up seriously ill or even dead !!
- Taylor