Topics Women [diabetes]

Health Topics Women

Diabetes

• Diabetes • Prenatal care • Heart disease • Cervical cancer
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What is diabetes?

Diabetes means that your blood sugar is too high. Your blood always has some sugar in it because the body uses sugar for energy; it's the fuel that keeps you going. But too much sugar in the blood is not good for your health.

Your body changes most of the food you eat into sugar. Your blood takes the sugar to the cells throughout your body. The sugar needs insulin to get into the body's cells. Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas, an organ near the stomach. The pancreas releases insulin into the blood. Insulin helps the sugar from food get into body cells. If your body does not make enough insulin or the insulin does not work right, the sugar can't get into the cells, so it stays in the blood. This makes your blood sugar level high, causing you to have diabetes.

If not controlled, diabetes can lead to blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputations (having a toe or foot removed, for example), and nerve damage. In women, diabetes can cause problems during pregnancy and make it more likely that your baby will be born with birth defects.

What is pre-diabetes?

Pre-diabetes means your blood sugar is higher than normal but lowers than the diabetes range. It also means you are at risk of getting type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The good news is: You can reduce the risk of getting diabetes and even return to normal blood sugar levels with modest weight loss and moderate physical activity. If you are told you have pre-diabetes, have your blood glucose (sugar) checked again in 1 to 2 years.

What are the different types of diabetes?

The three main types of diabetes are:

• Type 1 diabetes is commonly diagnosed in children and young adults, but it's a lifelong condition. If you have this type of diabetes, your body does not make insulin, so you must take insulin every day. Treatment for type 1 diabetes includes taking insulin shots or using an insulin pump, eating healthy, exercising regularly, taking aspirin daily (for some), and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

• Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes - about 9 out of 10 people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. You can get type 2 diabetes at any age, even during childhood. In type 2 diabetes, your body makes insulin, but the insulin can't do its job, so sugar is not getting into the cells. Treatment includes taking medicine, eating healthy, exercising regularly, taking aspirin daily (for some), and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

• Gestational (jess-TAY-shun-ul) diabetes occurs during pregnancy. This type of diabetes occurs in about 1 in 20 pregnancies. During pregnancy your body makes hormones that keep insulin from doing its job. To make up for this, your body makes extra insulin. But in some women this extra insulin is not enough, so they get gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes usually goes away when the pregnancy is over. Women who have had gestational diabetes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life.

Who gets diabetes?

About 20 million Americans have diabetes, about half of whom are women. As many as one third do not know they have diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes occurs at about the same rate in men and women, but it is more common in Whites than in minorities.

Type 2 diabetes is more common in older people, mainly in people who are overweight. It is more common in African Americans, Hispanic Americans/Latinos,
and American Indians.

What causes diabetes?

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes - The exact causes of both types of diabetes are still not known. Type 1 diabetes tends to show up after a person is exposed to a trigger, such as a virus, which can start an attack on the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. There is no one cause for type 2 diabetes, but it seems to run in families, and most people who get type 2 diabetes are overweight.

Gestational diabetes - Changing hormones and weight gain are part of a healthy pregnancy, but these changes make it hard for your body to keep up with its need for insulin. When that happens, your body doesn't get the energy it needs from
the foods you eat.

What are the signs of diabetes?

• being very thirsty
• urinating a lot
• feeling very hungry
• feeling very tired
• losing weight without trying
• having sores that are slow to heal
• having dry, itchy skin
• losing feeling in or having tingling in the hands or feet
• having blurry vision
• having more infections than usual