Introduction to Diabetes

What is Diabetes?

To understand what is Diabetes, lets first introduce a very important hormone, called Insulin.

About Insulin

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, used to convert glucose to glycogen for storage, and facilitate the uptake of glucose from the blood stream. 
As you may remember from our previous post about carbohydrate metabolism, glucose is produced when consumed food is digested via metabolism, which refers to the way our body use digested food for energy and growth. 
Most food is broken down into glucose, which is a form of sugar in blood – a principal source of fuel for our bodies. 
Usually, an adequate quantity of insulin is released after meals to move the glucose present in our blood into the cells, lowering the blood sugar level. 
 However, if insulin is absent, glucose is unable to enter our cells, making it impossible for cells to take in and utilize glucose.

Diabetics

Diabetes patients have a common life-long health condition in which excessive amount of glucose is developed in blood (hyperglycemia). 
This is because the body either does not produce enough insulin/no insulin(Type 1 Diabetes) or has cells that do not respond properly to the insulin the pancreas produces(Type 2 Diabetes). the body cannot store glucose in the form of glycogen, resulting in too much glucose building up in the blood. 
This excess blood glucose eventually passes out of the body in urine. 
So, even though the blood has plenty of glucose, the cells are not getting it for their essential energy and growth requirements.
Diabetes is a chronic disease and, if not managed well, can deteriorate steadily to cause devastating complications such as blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, heart disease and limb amputation. 


Studies show that about half of patients already have diabetes-related complications at the time of diagnosis, and in Singapore, one out of 9 people aged 18 to 69 has diabetes. That’s about 11.3% of our population or more than 400,000 people!

Lets wrap up this post with a short video about insulin, and the importance of it!

Citations

1. King, M. W. (2012, May 17). Insulin secretion. Retrieved from http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/insulin.php
2. Diabetes information hub. (2012). Retrieved from http://diabetesinformationhub.com/DiabetesandInsulin.php
3. Diabetic society of singapore. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.diabetes.org.sg/