Today, our society is highly concerned with the diseases and viruses that are plaguing various parts of the world. There’s one that seems to stay in the background when it comes to the media, though. Yet it affects millions of people.
Diabetes is a disease that affects the pancreas and its ability to create insulin for the body, which is an important part of how our blood sugar in controlled. There are many forms of diabetes, but two forms of diabetes that most are familiar with are types 1 and 2 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes usually starts in early childhood or young adulthood, and causes people to have episodes of high blood sugar. A person who has this form of diabetes has an immune system whose pancreas destroys cells that help create insulin.
Insulin is responsible for making sugar accessible for the body. In order for the cells of people with type 1 diabetes to get sugar for energy, they must have insulin injections for the rest of their lives.
Type 2 diabetes affects more people in their adulthood, but lately, more children are also being diagnosed. This form of diabetes is thought to be caused by factors such as obesity, lack of exercise and a poor diet.
A healthy lifestyle, exercising regularly and being mindful about what one eats can help keep this form of diabetes under control.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type. According to World Health Organization, around 90 percent of diabetics have type 2 diabetes.
People with type 2 diabetes are able to create insulin, but their body isn't using that insulin properly.
The Lancet came out with a research report that did not differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes in the report, but still showed that diabetes has quadrupled in growth since the 1980s.
The study also found that low-income and middle-income countries were affected the most. This information has also come in alongside World Health Day and their initiative to “Beat Diabetes” which “highlights the need to step up prevention and treatment of the disease.”
When is comes to prevention, the best thing to do is to make sure that you are taking care of your body now. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and helping to make others more aware are the best ways that you can help prevent diabetes in the future.
Reviewed April 19, 2016
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith