What is Diabetes?

I assumed anyone reading this blog would know what a diabetic is, but I could be wrong.  So, just what is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that is caused by too much glucose (sugar) in the blood.  You see, for all of the different types of abuse our bodies survive, they are really pretty delicate chemical factories where thousands of reactions are going on every moment of our lives.  If they get out of balance, there can be problems.  One of them is diabetes.

Diabetes occurs when there is too much sugar floating around in your blood and not enough in your blood cells.  This happens because insulin, which the pancreas produces, is  not working like it should, or is in pretty short supply.  Think of it this way, insulin is a key to a door in the cell wall.  If everything is working right, insulin comes along, opens the cell door and sugar enters the cell and leaves the blood.  All pretty simple, right?

But, in diabetics there is either not enough insulin, or the insulin is not working correctly.  If sugar can't get into your blood cells, then it's floating around in your blood causing all kinds of havoc on your organs - not good at all!  Which is why it's really important for a diabetic to control the disease - because it can to lead to so many other problems.

So, now you have a basic idea of what diabetes is.  And, you know that it's caused by an insulin shortage of some kind.  Which will all make even more sense as you read Dr. K's description of the various diabetes drugs being used today and what they seek to do.  Go back and read her post on Metformin - it will make more sense.

This article provides a decent overview of diabetes and how to deal with it in general terms.  Remember, as you battle to control diabetes, not everything will work the way researchers say it will because they deal with large numbers of folks and do not know you or your body.  Your body chemistry might be different, so you will find a lot of guidelines, but fewer hard and fast rules.  The car manufacturers have a phrase for this kind of difference: "Your mileage may vary."

Your fight with diabetes is a personal fight - one that you must win...and CAN win.  I know you can do it.  I know you can beat back and beat down the disease and have a wonderful life.  I know it. My goal is to help you find the tools you need to win the battle.

You can read more about what makes a diabetic here, on a previous post.

As always, I welcome your comments.