About Diabetes

Everyone knows someone with Diabetes!  More than 100 million U.S. adults are now living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to a report released by the CDC in July, 2017.   The report finds that as of 2015, 30.3 million Americans - 9.4 percent of the U.S. population - have diabetes.   Another 84.1 million have prediabetes, a condition that if not treated often leads to type 2 diabetes within 5 years.  

Diabetes is a condition that affects the way your body uses food for energy. Normally, the sugar you take in is digested and broken down to a simple sugar, known as glucose. The glucose then circulates in your blood where it waits to enter cells to be used as fuel. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, helps move the glucose into cells. A healthy pancreas adjusts the amount of insulin based on the level of glucose. But, if you have diabetes, this process breaks down, and blood sugar levels become too high.

People with type 1 diabetes, previously called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or juvenile-onset diabetes, are unable to produce insulin properly, if at all. Type 1 diabetes develops when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin that regulates blood glucose. To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by injection or an insulin pump. There is no known way to prevent type 1 diabetes. Several clinical trials of methods to prevent type 1 diabetes are currently in progress.

People with type 2 diabetes, previously called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or adult-onset diabetes, can produce insulin, but their cells don't respond to it properly. As the need for insulin rises, the pancreas gradually loses its ability to produce it. Type 2 diabetes is associated with older age, obesity, lack of physical activity, family history of diabetes, and history of gestational diabetes. (Please see our "Different Types of Diabetes" Tab.)

In either case, the glucose can't move into the cells and blood glucose levels can become high. Over time, these high glucose levels can cause serious complications such as blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, amputations, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack.