Diabetes explained

Diabetes mellitus is a common health condition. About 3.6 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with diabetes, which is about 6 in every 100 people. This figure rises to over 4 million when those as yet undiagnosed are included who don’t know they have diabetes. This video from Diabetes UK below explains what diabetes is.

Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. Glucose comes from the digestion of starchy foods such as bread, rice, potatoes, chapatis, yams and plantain, from sugar and other sweet foods, and from the liver which makes glucose. Insulin is vital for life. It is a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps the glucose to enter the cells where it is used as fuel by the body for energy.

There are two main types of diabetes:

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Type 1 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (around 9 out of 10 people with diabetes have type 2)

Type 1 diabetes develops if the body is unable to produce any insulin. This type of diabetes usually appears before the age of 40. It is treated by insulin injections and diet and regular exercise is recommended.

Type 2 diabetes used to be called ‘maturity-onset’ diabetes because it usually appears in middle-aged or elderly people, although it does occasionally and increasingly occur in younger people. Type 2 diabetes develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance).

This type of diabetes usually appears in people over the age of 40, though it can appear before the age of 40. People who are overweight are particularly likely to develop type 2 diabetes. It tends to run in families and is more common in South Asian and African-Caribbean communities, where it can appear in people over the age of 25, rarely even younger.

Type 2 diabetes can be treated in a number of different ways but it usually begins with a healthy diet and regular exercise. If a healthy diet and exercise are not sufficient to control your diabetes then medications can be added additionally.

These medications can include tablets, injectable medications or insulin injections. The main aim of treatment of both types of diabetes is to achieve blood glucose as near to normal as possible. Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol (blood fat levels) are also important. This, together with a healthy lifestyle, will help to improve well-being and protect against long-term damage to the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and major arteries.

Some people wrongly describe type 2 diabetes as ‘mild’ diabetes. There is no such thing as mild diabetes. All diabetes should be taken seriously, monitored regularly and treated properly.

It is now known that type 2 diabetes can be reversed (also known as remission) by weight loss. In a weight loss programme 86% of patients with type 2 diabetes who lost more than 15 kg (just above 2 stone) of weight went into type 2 diabetes remission in a year. We will cover remission in more depth later on in the course.