What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a problem with the body's fuel system. It is caused by lack of insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas (an organ that secretes enzymes needed for digestion) that is essential for getting energy from food. There are two kinds of diabetes:
- In type 1 diabetes, which usually starts in children but can also start in adults, the body stops making insulin completely.
- In type 2 diabetes, also called adult-onset diabetes, the body still makes some insulin, but cannot use it properly.
Most adults with diabetes have type 2; in fact, type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 percent of all diabetes cases. In recent years, however, more and more adolescents, and even some children, have developed type 2 diabetes because of increasing amounts of obesity in our country.
How Insulin Works
Food is digested in the stomach and intestines, and carbohydrates are broken down into sugar molecules, or glucose . Glucose is then absorbed into the bloodstream, and blood glucose levels rise. This rise in blood sugar normally signals special cells in the pancreas, called beta cells, to release the right amount of insulin.
Insulin allows glucose and other nutrients (such as amino acids from proteins) to enter muscle cells. There, they can be stored for later or burned for energy.
When the body has a problem making insulin or the muscle cells do not respond to insulin in the right way, diabetes results
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Facts About Diabetes in Adults
- About 17 million people in the U.S. have type 2 diabetes. One-third of those people are unaware that they have the condition.
- Diabetes contributes to the deaths of more than 190,000 Americans per year.
- Diabetes often leads to blindness, heart and blood vessel disease, strokes, kidney failure, amputations, and nerve damage.
- Uncontrolled diabetes can complicate pregnancy and put a mother at risk for having a baby with birth defects.
- In 2002, diabetes cost the United States $132 billion, including $34 billion in indirect costs (such as disability payments and lost work time) and $98 billion in direct medical costs.
- Obesity raises the risk for diabetes by as much as 93%, and an inactive lifestyle can raise it by as much as 25%.
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