Diabetes Awareness Week 2022

This entry was posted in General June 6, 2022

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a serious condition where your blood glucose level is too high. It can happen when your body doesn't produce enough insulin or the insulin it produces isn't effective. Or, when your body can't produce any insulin at all. Although diabetes has no cure, you can take steps to managing your diabetes and stay healthy.

Types of Diabetes:

There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.

When you've got type 1 diabetes, you can't make any insulin at all. If you've got type 2 diabetes, it's a bit different. The insulin you make either can't work effectively, or you can't produce enough of it. They're different conditions, but both serious.

Other types of diabetes include gestational diabetes, which some women may go on to develop during pregnancy. And there are many other rarer types of diabetes such as type 3c and Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA).

In all types of diabetes, glucose can't get into your cells properly, so it begins to build up in your blood. And too much glucose in your blood causes a lot of different problems. 

What causes Diabetes?

What all types of diabetes have in common is that they cause people to have too much glucose (sugar) in their blood. But we all need some glucose. It's what gives us energy. We get glucose when our bodies break down the carbohydrates that we eat or drink. And that glucose is released into our blood. We also need a hormone called insulin. It's made by our pancreas, and it's insulin that allows the glucose in our blood to enter our cells and fuel our bodies. If you don't have diabetes, your pancreas senses when glucose has entered your bloodstream and releases the right amount of insulin, so the glucose can get into your cells. But if you have diabetes, this system doesn't work.

Symptoms of Diabetes:

The common symptoms of diabetes include: Going to the toilet a lot, especially at night, being really thirsty, feeling more tired, losing weight without trying to, cuts and wounds take longer to heal, blurred vision. Here is some more information about the signs and symptoms of diabetes, as well as advice about what to do if you have some.

Diabetes complications:

Over a long period of time, high glucose levels in your blood can seriously damage your heart, your eyes, your feet and your kidneys. These are known as the complications of diabetes. 

But with the right treatment and care, people can live a healthy life. And there's much less risk that someone will experience these complications.  Find out more about the different types of complications, and what you can do to reduce your risk of developing them.

At Ableworld, we have a variety of diabetic socks available. They work just like regular socks but have an incorporated stretch technology which gives 50% more stretch across the entire sock. 

If you're looking for guidance on living with diabetes or are worried you might have diabetes. Email [email protected] or call 0345 123 2399. 

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