When a person has diabetes the body does not have the ability to turn food into useable energy. This disease can adversely affect every area of the body if left untreated. While there is no cure, it can be treated. Along with having a good doctor it is important to work with a good diabetic supply house. You will likely need test strips, diabetic socks, and insulin products so this area of your care is important.

Diabetes can cause you to become blind, develop heart disease, have a stroke, kidney failure, have limbs amputated, and suffer nerve damage. If not treated pregnant women can give birth to children with birth defects. Indeed, diabetes is a serious disease.

To have a proper understanding of diabetes it is important to gain a working knowledge of glucose and digestion. The main fuel source of the body is glucose. When it is digested glucose provides the nourishment to the cells of the body. For glucose to provide this nourishment insulin must be present. Insulin is produced within the body by the pancreas when we eat. Then the blood can transport the glucose to the cells.

People with diabetes do not produce insulin, or it is improperly used by the body. Sometimes both happen within the same body. When this occurs glucose remains in the blood and does not reach the cells. This can cause the person to become tired, hungry, and thirsty. The person may lose weight, develop eye problems, and may need to urinate often.

There are three diabetes types, Type One, Type Two, and Gestational diabetes. This type of diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes because children, teens, or young adults are more apt to develop the disease. The pancreas’s beta cells no longer produce insulin because the immune system has destroyed them.

Type Two diabetes is the most common type. People of any age can develop Type Two diabetes. The body does not use insulin properly with this type of diabetes. The pancreas at first can produce enough insulin; however it ultimately cannot supply enough.

Gestational diabetes can develop in some women during the latter stages of a pregnancy. Most of the time this type of diabetes is reversed after the child is born. However the mother is at a higher risk of developing Type Two later. This type of diabetes is cause by pregnancy hormones or an insulin shortage in the body. Three out of eight pregnant women can expect gestational diabetes.