Diabetes - What is Diabetes and How Many Types Are There?

Diabetes is a pretty common disease with abnormally high levels of glucose in the bloodstream.  Perhaps more than any other disease, it is strongly associated with western culture and diet. 

The pancreas produces insulin and insulin is used to lower blood glucose levels. If the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin, your body will develop diabetes. Not enough insulin in the body causes diabetes. The body cannot absorb or make full use of some of the food that we eat, especially the carbohydrates or sugars or starches. 

The pancreas does not make enough insulin available to burn these foods as energy or store them for future use.  The starches and sugars increase the blood sugar content.  The sugar now passes through the kidneys and into the urine.  The symptoms of diabetes are caused by the loss of carbohydrate energy, leading to an illness which can be fatal if not treated properly. 

There are two types of Diabetes; these are Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes. Whatever diabetes type, it represents an abnormal rise of glucose in a person's blood. This anomaly is due to the insufficient level of insulin or maybe a misuse of it. If it is not treated appropriately, this disease can be the origin of many serious complications (cardiac disease, amputations, blindness, and impotence).

Glucose brings energy to different parts of the human body. Insulin plays a major role to stabilize the glucose in the blood after physical effort or after a meal. This is a complex regulating system.

For a normal person, glycemia levels oscillate at between 0,5 and 1,5 gram per liter of blood. Glycemia is the sugar rate in the blood, and the average value is 1 gram per liter (5,5 mmol/l). It varies between 1 and 1,4 gram/l two hours after a meal. It varies between 0.8 and 1.26 gram/liter in the morning.

According the World Health Organization, there is a diabetes problem when glycemia levels are higher in the morning or equal to 1.26 gram/liter. Hypoglycemia corresponds to a glycemia lower that 0.46 gram/liter.

Self monitoring services allow the use of capillary glycemia testing to be made. A puncture is made on a finger to measure it. The drop of blood obtained is deposited on a strip and it is immediately readable by a reader that can be stored in the patient's pocket.

The glycourie is the sugar rate in the urine. It is necessary to know its value because when the sugar reaches 1.6 gram/liter, sugar has passed into the urine.

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