Diabetes overview

Here is a simple overview about how diabetes works.

How a non-diabetic person’s body functions:

They eat carbohydrates (sugars) and their blood sugar level rises. The pancreas secretes a hormone called insulin into the blood. This insulin is responsible for helping the body use the blood sugar for energy and fat storage. After the insulin has moved the blood sugar to the muscle and fat tissues, the person’s blood sugar level drops. If the person continues to fast for at least 8 hours, their blood sugar will slowly decline and reach a baseline level called the “fasting blood sugar” or FBS. In America, the FBS range for a diabetic person is anything over 125 mg/dL.  Anything close to that is called pre diabetes.  You can get your FBS level checked easily at the doctor’s office.

A diabetic person:

They eat carbohydrates and their blood sugar rises. They either don’t produce any or enough insulin (Type 1) or their body cells don’t respond well to the insulin they do produce (type 2). The result is similar for both types. The blood sugar remains high (hyperglycemia).  Diabetes essentially is “higher than normal blood sugar levels”.  If left unchecked, high blood sugar can lead to all kinds of problems including heart damage, kidney damage, stroke, blurred vision, and eventually coma and death.