2) What is diabetes? How does this affect an individual's ability to use glucose? What are some possible treatment
for adult onset diabetes?
Answers
Diabetes can be effectively managed when caught early. However, when left untreated, it can lead to potential complications that include heart disease, stroke, kidney damage, and nerve damage.
Normally after you eat or drink, your body will break down sugars from your food and use them for energy in your cells. To accomplish this, your pancreas needs to produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin is what facilitates the process of pulling sugar from the blood and putting it in the cells for use, or energy.
If you have diabetes, your pancreas either produces too little insulin or none at all. The insulin can’t be used effectively. This allows blood glucose levels to rise while the rest of your cells are deprived of much-needed energy. This can lead to a wide variety of problems affecting nearly every major body system.
Types of diabetes
The effects of diabetes on your body also depends on the type you have. There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.
Type 1, also called juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is an immune system disorder. Your own immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, destroying your body’s ability to make insulin. With type 1 diabetes, you must take insulin to live. Most people are diagnosed as a child or young adult.
Type 2 is related to insulin resistance. It used to occur in older populations, but now more and more younger populations are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This is a result of poor lifestyle, dietary, and exercise habits.