Last Updated on Saturday, 08 August 2009 12:16

Diabetes - The Basics

Learning you have diabetes probably comes as a shock.

Yet by understanding the basics about your condition, and with the support of your doctor, nurse, family and friends, you’ll soon be living life to the full. You really aren’t alone.

Why do I need insulin?

You have diabetes because your pancreas, an organ close to your stomach, doesn’t make enough of the hormone insulin, or the insulin doesn’t work properly.

When food is digested and enters your blood stream, insulin helps move glucose out of the blood and into the cells where it is used to produce the energy your body needs to function properly. Insulin is really important. Without insulin, the glucose stays in the blood, building up and causing you to have hyperglycaemia (too much glucose in the blood).

You can’t swallow insulin because it will be destroyed in your stomach.

By injecting insulin or restoring insulin secretion however, you will let the glucose enter your body’s cells again.

With the right amount of insulin, you will feel well.

Types of diabetes

There are two main types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes develops when the pancreas stops making insulin. You will need insulin injections every day. Eating healthily and regular exercise are also recommended.

Although no one completely knows why, the body’s own defence system attacks and destroys the cells making insulin.

It generally develops before the age of 40 and especially in childhood. 5 to 10% of all people with diabetes have Type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes develops when the pancreas makes too little insulin for your body to work properly or/and your body doesn’t react to it properly. You will be treated with a combination of a healthier diet, increased physical activity and diabetes medication like tablets and/or injectable drugs like insulin or incretin hormone.

Type 2 diabetes is linked with being overweight and directly influenced by lifestyle. Certain ethnic groups are also more susceptible than others to developing diabetes.

It’s the most common form of diabetes affecting 90 to 95% of all people with diabetes within the UK and Ireland.

Controlling diabetes

The glucose level in your bloodstream varies constantly throughout the day. What foods you eat, when you eat them, if you’re exercising – all of these will affect blood glucose too.

That’s why it’s important to:

• Monitor your blood glucose level regularly to know what action to take
• Eat and exercise carefully as it will help manage blood glucose levels
• Where prescribed, take tablets or injectable drugs like insulin or incretin hormone regularly to control blood glucose
• Recognise when things don’t feel quite right and know what to do

As one of the 2.7 million people in the UK and Ireland with a diabetes diagnosis, you can act positively. You can learn how to manage it.

Just so we’re clear…

• Injecting insulin or incretin hormone helps to manage diabetes; it doesn’t cure it
• Once diagnosed, diabetes is a lifelong condition
• You must follow your prescribed treatment all the time; you’ll seriously jeopardise your health if you don’t
• You’re the best person to learn how to care of yourself

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