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12 Truths about Diabetes

Diabetes has 2 types. With type 1 Diabetes or the insulin-dependent diabetes, your pancreas does not make insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps glucose get into your cells to give them energy. Without insulin, too much glucose stays in your blood.  This can happen at any age but commonly in children and young adults. When you have type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond correctly to insulin. This is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that fat, liver, and muscle cells do not respond normally to insulin. As a result blood sugar does not get into cells to be stored for energy. When sugar cannot enter cells, abnormally high levels of sugar build up in the blood. This is called hyperglycemia. High levels of blood sugar often trigger the pancreas to produce more and more insulin, but it not enough to keep up with the body's demand.






Here are some facts to eliminate confusions about Diabetes:

1.  Eating sweets is not the main cause of Diabetes.  Generally, the main cause of Diabetes is insulin deficiency or our body is failing respond to insulin.  However, sweets can cause diabetes indirectly because sweets can cause obesity which is a cause of type 2 diabetes.

2.  Diabetes occurs at any age.  Kids can have it at early age.  Obesity causes children to have Diabetes type 2 which is caused by physical inactivity. 95% of children with Diabetes are obese or over weight.

3.  Insulin does not cause complications.  Taking insulin actually does prevent diabetic people from having complications lowering your blood sugar.

4.  Type 2 Diabetes is preventable but type 1 is not for now.  Type 2 Diabetes can be prevented, though all your family members has it, by having a healthy lifestyle.  However, type 1 Diabetes has something to do with genetic factors thus making it unpreventable.

5.  People with Diabetes can eat anything.  A person with diabetes is required to limit carbohydrate intake but it doesn't mean that he/she cannot eat his/her favorite sweet dessert.  He/she can eat anything but it is a must not to exceed the allowed carbohydrate intake per meal. The recommended amount of carbohydrates is 40-60 grams for women and 60-75 grams for men(per day).  

6.  Diabetes won't result to blindness, heart attack, kidney disease, amputation, and won't have you lose your feet if properly controlled.  Blood glucose control reduces the chance of having these things to happen.

7.  Stress worsen Diabetes.  Stress and depression have direct effect on blood sugar.  Experiencing stress can increase your blood sugar and being able to control stress can have positive effect on sugar level.

8.  Eating excess amount of carbohydrates and unhealthy fats increases the complications of Diabetes even you take extra medicine.  Taking extra medicine makes you gain more weight thus increases insulin resistance.

9.  Don't trust 'Sugar Free' labeled products.  These 'sugar free' labeled products contain just as many calories, carbohydrates, and fats as the products they replace.


10.  Fair amount of weight loss improves blood sugar, blood pressure and fat levels.  It would be better to follow the height to weight ratio chart.


11.  Exercise makes insulin more effective.  Without exercise, all the medicines a diabetic person is taking are useless.  Exercise improves metabolism that makes our body respond better, specially to medicines.


12.  Diabetes, looking on the positive side, is a wake up call to have a healthier lifestyle.  Diabetes is not the end of everything.  It's simply a stricter way of telling you not to abuse your body.

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