Page 2

Chapter 2: What is Type 2 Diabetes?

When you eat food some of the food is broken into a sugar called glucose. Your body needs glucose to feed hungry cells and give them energy. To help move glucose to your cells, your pancreas produces insulin. Insulin acts like a key to unlock the cell so it can get energy. It is made by the body to help sugar enter the cells.

With type 2 diabetes, either your body does not produce enough insulin to unlock the cells, or the insulin it produces doesn’t make the cells unlock. With nowhere to go, glucose builds up in your blood and your blood sugar rises. Most people with diabetes need medicine to help sugar get out of the blood and into their cells where it is used for energy.

No one knows exactly what causes diabetes, but we do know some factors that increase the chance of developing diabetes. Diabetes is more common in people who:

• Are overweight
• Have a family member with diabetes
• Do not exercise enough
• Have been exposed to Agent Orange
• Have high blood pressure
• Are over 45 years old
• Belong to ethnic groups that are at greater risk for diabetes, such as Latinos and African Americans

Here are symptoms of diabetes you may have experienced:

• Often feeling tired
• Sometimes blurry vision
• Always feeling thirsty and hungry
• Frequent urination
• Sexual problems
• Numb or tingling feet
• Wounds that take a long time to heal

The long-term complications of diabetes are more serious and can be avoided by keeping your blood sugar in control without big highs and lows. These are long-term complications that can be avoided:

• Vision loss
• Kidney disease
• Nerve damage
• Problems with legs and feet

If you are overweight, losing weight may reduce the amount of medication you need. Being overweight places extra stress on your body. That extra weight can make you become resistant to insulin. Then you have to take more medicine. But if you lose even a little weight, it’s possible to take less medication. You’re also at less risk for complications like vision loss or kidney failure. Talk to your doctor before you decide to lose weight or make changes to your medicine because everyone’s treatment is different.

There’s also a connection between diabetes and cholesterol. In addition to medications for diabetes, you may be taking medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol. Diabetes and high cholesterol can both be caused by obesity and physical inactivity. And they both lead to heart disease, so pay special attention to treating high blood pressure and high cholesterol. And don’t smoke!