Diabetes
Tuesday 10 June 2008
This week is Diabetes Awareness Week. Over 20,000 children and young people in the UK have the condition. We find out more about causes, different types and how it is treated.
Insulin and glucose
Glucose is produced when certain foods are digested. These foods include starchy products such as bread, rice, potatoes, chapatis and yams, and sugar and other sweet foods. Glucose is also produced by the liver.
Insulin is a hormone that allows cells to absorb the sugar or glucose from foods and give you energy. Without insulin the glucose stays in your blood stream instead and eventually leads to dangerously high levels, which causes
diabetes.
Types
There are two main types of diabetes – type 1 and type 2. Most people with diabetes have type 2.
In type 1 diabetes, the cells in your body that make a hormone called insulin are slowly destroyed. This means that eventually the body is unable to make its own insulin.
In type 2 diabetes, your body is still able to make some insulin but it doesn’t' work properly or there isn't enough. Over 80 percent of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are overweight
Most young people have type 1 diabetes, whereas most adults are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Watch the NHS video about teenager Chandler Bennet, who was diagnosed with diabetes 1 in 2004.
Signs
Some symptoms can include:-
- Fatigue
- Feeling very thirsty
- Going to the loo a lot especially at night
- Tingling hands and feet
- Blurred vision
- Unexplained weight loss
If you have some or all these symptoms it doesn’t mean you definitely have diabetes but it’s worth going to your GP and getting checked out.
Tests
To test for diabetes a GP will test your blood glucose levels. This will be sent off to a lab. Often your GP will also send you to a specialist who will run more tests.
Diabetes facts
- The older you are, the greater the risk of diabetes
- Black or minority ethnic group are more at risk after the age of 25
- Diabetes runs in families
- You are more likely to get it if you are overweight.
- It is not an infectious disease – you can’t catch it from anyone.
- If left untreated it can lead to heart disease and blindness
Treatment
The main aim of diabetes treatments is to achieve near normal blood glucose levels. The condition is managed by a combination of healthy diet, regular physical activity and sometimes tablets and insulin injections
Type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin via an injection.
Type 2 diabetes is treated with tablets that help the body to use the insulin you make to control your diabetes and make you feel better.
For both types you are required to have annual checkups and also regular blood sugar checks which involve a little jab on the finger.
Moody
Diabetes can make you moody due partly as a direct result of low energy levels but also because it requires regular treatment and testing that can feel like a real disruption to daily, normal life.
It takes some getting used to but controlling your blood glucose levels and regular tests helps.
Diabetes Week is the annual campaign by Diabetes UK to increase the public's knowledge of diabetes, its symptoms and effects, and to raise funds for research into a cure. Find out more and get involved .
