Diabetes

8 Pages 1919 Words

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which the body does not make, or does not properly use, insulin. Insulin is the hormone that helps your body use the energy from sugar, starches and other foods. The result is that your body doesn’t get the energy it needs, and unmetabolized sugar or glucose, builds up in your blood causing damage to the body and its systems. In the United States of America, about 16 million people have diabetes. That is about six percent of the total population. Every year about 798,000 new cases are introduced and diagnosed (Lifescan 1). Many different kinds of people are affected with this horrible disease. The three different types of diabetes are type one diabetes, type two diabetes, and gestational diabetes. The people that most often get type one diabetes are people younger than 30 years of age. The people most likely to get type two diabetes are people over the age of 40. But those are just the normals, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get them earlier or later. An estimated 18 percent of the US population, over 65 years old, have diabetes (Lifescan 1). Gestational Diabetes affects women during their pregnancy. Common cases happen in the sixth month of pregnancy or weeks 24 through 28. Approximately two to five percent of all women who become pregnant will develop gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is much more common in African Americans and overweight women (Lifescan 1). And about 35 to 50 percent of women who develop gestational diabetes will develop type two diabetes. The complications of diabetes will be very serious if it is not diagnosed early.
There are major differences in the three types of diabetes. Type one diabetes the patient needs to take insulin because their bodies do not make enough of it. Insulin helps turn food into energy for the body to work. Most people make insulin in their pancreas. If you have type one diabetes, your body does not make insulin. Ins...