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Diabetes is a chronic (long term) incurable disease that affects the way your body uses carbohydrates, protein, and fats. Diabetes happens when an organ in our body called the pancreas doesn’t make a hormone called insulin at all, or like it once did. Our body uses insulin to help get the blood sugar out of the blood vessels and into the body’s many cells for energy.
When someone is diagnosed with diabetes, blood sugar begins to build up in the blood vessel, which can cause problems inside the body such as nerve damage in the feet, heart, kidneys, eyes, and/or stomach. Along with other complications such as periodontal disease, impotence, and hearing impairment.
Somewhere between 1980-1995, an international expert committee came up with the terms Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Prior to that diabetes was often referred to as childhood, or insulin dependent diabetes OR adult onset, or non-insulin dependent diabetes. This was mainly due to the fact that up until the middle of the 20th century people who were usually only diagnosed with diabetes when they were young or when they were much older.
Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (Previously called Childhood or Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus)
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (Previously called Adult Onset or Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus)
Find out if you are at risk. Take this free risk assessment test online.
If you are at risk, and/or are experiencing any of the symptoms, then see your doctor to have blood work done. If you do test positive for diabetes (see table below), make sure to get educated about how to control it.
*Source: Adapted from American Diabetes Association. Standards of medical care in diabetes—2012. Diabetes Care. 2012;35(Supp 1):S12, table 2.
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