What happens initially is either there is insulin resistance in the body. This is when the body cannot identify insulin and thus unable to utilize it to convert glucose into energy. Or, there is glucose buildup in the bloodstream, which can be caused by a daily diet high in starch and sugar, and low in liquid intake. If there is glucose buildup, the pancreas works overtime to produce insulin to get the blood sugar level down. If this goes on for a while, the pancreas ceases to produce insulin.

There are many factors that affect the body such as diet, lifestyle, family health history, and ethnicity.

Since type 2 diabetes does not develop instantly, it is avoidable. If people who have high chances of developing this disease are recognized early on, and they take the necessary steps in improving their health, then the development of type 2 diabetes can be stopped.

If you already have diabetes, then your family is at risk of having this disease, too. Conduct a diabetes check. There are tools available that can tell a person’s sugar level. If you want to be more certain, don’t hesitate to visit a doctor as soon as possible. Lastly, make improvements to your family’s eating habits and lifestyle. Lessen the servings of sugar and starch, and put more fiber in your family’s diet. Increase your family’s liquid intake, so that excess glucose in their bodies will be washed out.

Buy fresh vegetables and fruits as much as possible, although the canned variety will do. Just remember to get rid of the syrup or brine. For your family’s lifestyle, encourage them to be active. Make sure that everyone of you engages in sports, or even jogging or walking for a few hours.

Changing your diet and lifestyle to fight type 2 diabetes may be difficult at first, but it’s all worth it. Not only will you avoid diabetes, but you’ll also avoid the strings of serious complications it brings.

If your answer is yes to more than one of these questions, then your child might have type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes. It is typically found in children to young adults. This is a condition in which the pancreas produces very little insulin or none at all, making a person dependent on insulin injections. This type of diabetes cannot be cured as of yet, but can be treated.

There are more chances for your child to have type 1 diabetes if there is someone in your family history also has it. Other risk factors include the following:

• If you had pre-eclampsia (hypertension increase caused by pregnancy) during your pregnancy.

• If you gave milk formula to your child during the first 6-8 months.

• If you are Northern European or Mediterranean.

If your child shows some of these symptoms, it’s best to take him to a doctor for a check-up. Make sure what type of diabetes your child has from the doctor, and ask questions about what to do with your child’s diet.

These symptoms, though they might be just shrugged off as typical for growing children, should not be ignored. Type 1 diabetes has complications that, when left untreated, may increase your child’s risk in being blind, and having heart, kidney, or nerve damage.

Duh. I chose to wait and not voice out my mental reaction. My patience was rewarded with, “It’s good for your body and will help prevent diabetes.”

Ahh. Well then, that makes cinnamon ideal for my family. You see, both my parents have a family history of type 2 diabetes, so that increases our chances of developing it later on.

What is cinnamon, really? Aside from being used to add flavor to breads, pastries, and coffee, it’s known to be used in managing glucose levels in the bloodstream and reducing cholesterol. It is said to have significant effect in lowering blood sugar with everyday intake.

Before the onset of type 2 diabetes, the body ceases to recognize insulin, thus rendering it useless in converting glucose to energy, which the body needs to fuel everyday activity. Cinnamon allegedly restores the body’s recognition of insulin, but it’s still under thorough research. However, there are fruits from research that make the scent of cinnamon even more inviting, especially to people with diabetes. Some studies say that cinnamon, with daily intake, trims down risk factors that are linked to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

On the other hand, in the year 2007, a study was conducted with cinnamon and people with type 1 diabetes. The result was that cinnamon was ineffective in reducing the sugar level in the bloodstream.

Gestational diabetes is the type of diabetes diagnosed in non-diabetic pregnant women who have high blood sugar levels. 3-6% of all pregnant women are affected by this condition. It often starts in the later weeks of pregnancy, during the 24th to 28th weeks of conception.

Gestational diabetes when there is insulin resistance in the body. Yes, insulin production is sufficient, but it’s unable to do its job properly because of other hormones that are present during pregnancy. Cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, and prolactin are some of these hormones. The placenta that nourishes the baby by producing human placental lactogen, produces more of these hormones as the baby develops. That’s why insulin resistance is greater in the later weeks of pregnancy. Most pregnant women can defeat the effects of insulin resistance by producing more insulin, but those who cannot suffer from gestational diabetes.

Unlike other types of diabetes, gestational diabetes is reversible and usually goes away soon after giving birth. Women with this type of diabetes can still have healthy babies so long as they have good control over their sugar levels.

After pregnancy, there is a risk of having type 2 diabetes for women who had gestational diabetes. There is also a risk for the babies that they carried to grow up obese and develop type 2 diabetes on the onset of adulthood or much earlier. That’s why, after pregnancy, it’s important to seek advice from doctors. It’s important to maintain a low in sugar, high in fiber diet, and to take up an active lifestyle.

Life for people with diabetes is fraught with dos and don’ts. You might say, life for everyone is like that, but these people face consequences that may be fatal to their health, especially people with type 1 diabetes or juvenile diabetes, because they’ve had this disease for longer. This type of diabetes is often caused by the obliteration of beta cells that produce insulin by an autoimmune process. It is diagnosed as early as childhood up to young adulthood. Unlike type 2 diabetes that can still be prevented, juvenile diabetes cannot.

Juvenile diabetes is treated by regular injections of insulin with thorough observation of blood sugar levels. If insulin injections are stopped, diabetic coma can occur and this may cause death. Aside from regular insulin injections and meticulous monitoring of blood sugar, it’s also very important to make good food choices and to exercise regularly. Though applying changes in lifestyle cannot reverse the disease, it can help in reducing the possible complications that may happen.

There’s no end to treating juvenile diabetes. Taking extra care with diet, exercise, and medications doesn’t stop a person with juvenile diabetes from doing most activities, but the knowledge of always having a disease also has a psychological impact. There’s still an upside, though. They appreciate the gift of good health more than healthier people do, and they live healthily, as all of us should.

You’re child’s risk of having type 1 diabetes is twice as much if you’ve been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before your 11th birthday. If both you and your husband have this type of diabetes, then your child’s chances of having the same condition is a disturbing 25%.

As for the case of type 2 diabetes, this can be diagnosed in anyone at any age. This is also largely influenced by the kind of diet and lifestyle that a person follows.

If you’re diagnosed with type 2 diabetes below 50 years old, your child has a 14% chance of having the same type of diabetes. It lowers to around 7% if you have type 2 diabetes beyond 50 years old.

Logically, a child’s chances of having diabetes are increased when the mother has the disease, because she is the one who carries the child for 9 months. Of course, whatever the condition of a mother’s body affects that of the baby inside her womb, because the baby is exposed to high glucose levels in the mother’s blood. If the mother and father both have type 2 diabetes, or even both their families have a history of type 2 diabetes, then the chances of their child having the same disease is an alarming 50%.

The reason for diabetes insipidus being a type of diabetes, even if it’s very much unrelated to the other types, is because they share the same symptoms of frequent urination and excessive thirst. Other than that similarity, their causes and ways of treatment are completely different.

There are four types of diabetes insipidus, namely:

• Pituitary DI (diabetes insipidus)

This type is caused by the lack of vasopressin, which is the hormone that signals the kidneys to make urine concentrated. This is caused by damage to the back part of the pituitary gland where production of vasopressin usually occurs.

• Gestagenic or Gestational DI

Just like what hormones present during pregnancy do to insulin, there are cases when vasopressin is overwhelmed too quickly. It can be treated, and just like gestational diabetes, it goes away several weeks after delivery.

• Nephrogenic DI

This results from kidney diseases or from various medications. It may only be treated by curing the kidney disease or eliminating the drug responsible.

• Primary polydipsia

This occurs when there is a defect in the brain that controls thirst. Excessive thirst results to too much fluid intake and this can result to suppression of vasopressin.

Diabetes insipidus is not a health risk and does not cause other complications. However, liquid intake must be sustained so as not to cause dehydration and other complications that lack of water in the body brings.

Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes patients can still produce insulin, though insufficiently. There are cases when insulin production is enough, but the body can’t identify the insulin so it is not utilized properly. When the body fails to recognize the insulin hormone, there is insulin-resistance. Either way, glucose is not converted into energy, causing a buildup in the bloodstream.

Glucose buildup in the bloodstream has other complications, one being dehydration, which is a symptom of diabetes. This is caused by frequent urination that is needed to get rid of the excess glucose in the bloodstream. Another complication is diabetic coma. This is caused by severe dehydration. Lastly, if the body is not able to get rid of the glucose in the bloodstream, damage to the nerves, small blood vessels, heart, and kidneys will occur over time.

Another difference from type 1 diabetes is that anyone of any age can get type 2 diabetes. People who have the highest chances of having this are those who are overweight, with family history of diabetes, and women who had gestational diabetes in a past pregnancy.

Its symptoms are extreme thirst, dry mouth, abnormally increased hunger, frequent urination, nausea, blurred vision, fatigue, and tingling of hands or feet. Another symptom is if a person has recurring skin, urinary tract, or vaginal infections.

With so much diabetes around these days, you may think that recognizing it should be easy. The truth is that it’s not easy, because diabetes is defined by blood tests. You can’t just look at someone and know the level of glucose in his or her blood.

Glucose is the name of the type of sugar found in our bodies that provides all the energy needed by your cells and organs to carry on all the chemical reactions that permit you to live and move.

The level of glucose that means you have diabetes is as follows:

- A casual blood glucose of 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) or more at any time of day or night, along with symptoms such as fatigue, frequent
urination and thirst, slow healing of skin, urinary infections, and vaginal itching in women. A normal casual blood glucose should be between 70
and 139 mg/dl.

- A fasting blood glucose of 126 mg/dl or more after no food for at least eight hours. A normal fasting blood glucose should be less than 100 mg/dl.

- A blood glucose of 200 mg/dl or greater 2 hours after consuming 75 grams of glucose.

A diagnosis of diabetes requires at least two abnormal levels on two different occasions. Don’t accept a lifelong diagnosis of diabetes on the basis of a single test.

The United States uses milligrams/deciliter (mg/dl) for units of measurement of the concentration of something in a liquid. Most of the rest of the world uses the International System (SI) of units, in which the concentration in a liquid is designated millimoles per liter (mmol/L).

To convert mg/dl to mmol/L, divide the value of mg/dl by 18. For example, 126 mg/dl becomes 7 mmol/L. A fasting blood glucose between 100 and 125 mg/dl or casual blood glucose between 140 and 199 mg/dl is pre-diabetes.

Most people with pre-diabetes will develop diabetes within ten years. Although people with pre-diabetes don’t usually develop small blood vessel complications of diabetes like blindness, kidney failure, and nerve damage, they’re more prone to large vessel disease like heart attacks and strokes, so you want to get that level of glucose down. 41 million people in the United States have pre-diabetes.

Diabetes is a condition in which insulin production or usage is insufficient. Insulin is the hormone that is produced by the pancreas, and its role is to convert sugar and starches into energy. If there is not enough insulin to convert glucose into energy, there will be a surplus of glucose in the body and it will only be disposed of through urination. When the extra glucose increases, it will just remain in the blood and not go to the cells to supply them with energy.

The symptoms of diabetes are frequent urination, excessive thirst, hunger, fatigue, and weight loss. Other symptoms of diabetes can comprise sudden body aches, blurry vision, dry mouth, itchy or dry skin, impotence for males, yeast infections for females, and UTI or urinary tract infections to name several.

The first symptoms of diabetes that is mentioned is frequent urination. This happens because of the high levels of glucose in the body. As described previously, the only way to get rid of the extra glucose in the body is through urination. The more often excess glucose gathers in the blood, the more frequent the urination.

Excessive thirst is caused by frequent urination. Since the body needs to get rid of the extra glucose in the blood through urination, more water is lost. The body needs to compensate the lost liquids, and that’s why water intake is very important in this case.

Hunger and fatigue are caused by the cells not receiving energy from converted glucose. Since glucose is not converted to energy by insulin, the cells cry out for more sustenance. That’s why the body feels hungry and tired.

There are different kinds of diabetes. They are Type 1 Diabetes or Juvenile Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, diabetes insipidus, and gestational diabetes.