Diabetes is a health condition whereby a person has high blood sugar. This often occurs when the pancreas does not process enough insulin or when the body's cells fail to respond appropriately to insulin. Sometimes it can be due to both situations. Diabetes patients often experience frequent urination, thirst, and hunger.
Diabetes is a long-term illness which about 15% of the world's population suffer from.
• Frequent urination
• Constant thirst
• Frequent hunger
• Weight gain
• Fatigue
• Wounds that heal slowly
• Tingling in hands and feet
• Numbness in hands and feet
Types of Diabetes
In this stage of diabetes, the body fails to produce insulin. Most type 1 diabetes patients develop the illness in their teenage years or from 40 years of age. This type of diabetes is not as common as the type 2 diabetes. It is a severe stage of diabetes where patients become dependent on insulin injections for the rest of their lives. It also involves following a strict diet to meet the right blood to the glucose level. Regular blood tests are also essential for patients with type 1 diabetes.
When a person has type 2 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce as much insulin as the body requires or the body cells refuse to react to the produced insulin. Type 2 diabetes is the most popular type of diabetes, and about 90% of people who have diabetes are at this type 2 stage. This type of diabetes can be controlled by taking on a healthy diet, frequently exercising, losing weight and watching the blood sugar level. If a person fails to manage type 2 diabetes, it can advance to the type 1 level where the patient becomes dependent on insulin injections. People living with obesity stand a higher risk of getting type 2 diabetes. Also, the older a person gets, the higher the risk of type 2 diabetes. This is because the older a person gets, the less physically active they become.
This type of diabetes often affects women during pregnancy. This is because a large number of women have high glucose levels in their blood and their bodies cannot produce all the insulin needed to transport glucose to their cells. This results in an increasing level of glucose.
