Diabetes

About Diabetes

The American Diabetes Association has partnered with Patient Advocate Foundation to make the Diabetes Co-Pay Relief fund possible.  For further resources for Diabetes or to connect with the American Diabetes Association visit  https://www.diabetes.org/resources.

Diabetes is a chronic condition associated with abnormally high levels of sugar in the blood. Most of the food we eat is broken down into sugar and released into the bloodstream. When blood sugar goes up, it signals the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin helps sugar from food get into cells to be used for energy.

With diabetes, the body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use the insulin well. If there is too little insulin or cells stop responding to insulin, too much blood sugar stays in the bloodstream. Over time, that can cause serious health problems, such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease.

The two main types of Diabetes are Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin or impairs the body’s ability to produce enough insulin. Type 1 diabetes is not a childhood disease, it occurs at any age, most often by early adulthood, in people of every race, shape or size, and has no known cure. Type 1 diabetes is also referred to as juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes affects the way your body metabolizes sugar and is the most common type of diabetes mellitus. With type 2 diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas produce insulin, but the body is unable regulate the movement of sugar into the cells, this is known as insulin resistance or may occur when the pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin to maintain normal glucose levels. Type 2 diabetes can develop at any age but is most often diagnosed in middle-aged or older people. Type 2 diabetes is also known as insulin-resistant diabetes, non-insulin dependent diabetes and adult onset diabetes.