Diabetes

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition that develops when you have problems with the hormone insulin. You need insulin to regulate the levels of glucose (sugar) in your blood. There are three types of diabetes:

Type 1

Type 1 diabetes develops in children and young people because their pancreas can’t make insulin at all. This is an autoimmune problem, where your body’s defense system mistakenly attacks your body’s healthy cells. With Type 1 diabetes, it attacks the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.

Type 2

Type 2 diabetes develops if your body can’t produce enough insulin or it becomes resistant to the insulin you’re making. It usually affects adults and is brought on by being overweight in many cases. However, as obesity rates are on the rise in children, so too are the rates of Type 2 diabetes.

Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy, raising your blood sugar levels and causing rapid fetal growth. As soon as the baby is born, your blood glucose starts to normalize, but having gestational diabetes does make you more likely to get Type 2 diabetes later on in life. 

What complications can diabetes cause?

Diabetes can lead to some of the most serious health problems affecting people across the United States, including:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Kidney disease
• High blood pressure
• Glaucoma
• Cataracts
• Diabetic neuropathy

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy affects your nerves, particularly in your feet. It can cause numbness, which means you don’t feel anything when you hurt your foot. Ulcers and slow healing wounds can develop, increasing your risk of infection. In some cases, patients can lose their feet.  

How is diabetes treated?

If you have Type 1 diabetes, you need to inject yourself with insulin to keep your blood sugar under control. You’ll need to do this for the rest of your life because there’s no cure. The Gulf Coast Medical Clinic team works with you to help you manage your diabetes and stay healthy.

One of the main approaches to treating Type 2 diabetes is to make changes in your habits and lifestyle, reversing the causes of your condition. Changes you need to make include:

• Losing weight
• Quitting smoking
• Cutting down on alcohol
• Getting more exercise
• Eating a healthy diet

Losing weight and eating a healthy diet can make a significant difference in your blood sugar. If you make these changes in the early stages, you can even reverse your Type 2 diabetes with these measures.

You might also need to take medication, like metformin, to help you get your diabetes under control, and in some cases, insulin injections.

The Gulf Coast Medical Clinic team specializes in helping patients manage chronic conditions like diabetes. They also offer in-office screening tests so you can find out whether you have diabetes before you experience any symptoms.

Call Gulf Coast Medical Clinic today to arrange your diabetic screening or book an appointment online.