I’ve always been independent. I’ve always had courage. But I didn’t always own my diabetes.

— Mary Tyler Moore

Before you got diabetes

Before you got diabetes, your body automatically kept your blood sugar exactly at the right level. Here is how that worked. After a meal containing carbohydrates, sugar is absorbed into the blood stream very quickly. The amount of sugar in your blood must not get too high or too low. Two hormones – insulin and glucagon – were produced in the pancreas – to ensure that the blood sugar was always well controlled no matter how much you had to eat and how much you exercised.

Types of diabetes

Diabetes Mellitus is the most common and there is two different categories:

Type 1 diabetes tends to occur in childhood or early adult life, and always requires treatment with insulin injections. It is caused by the body’s own immune system destroying the insulin-making cells (beta-cells) of the pancreas.

Type 2 diabetes usually develops slowly in adulthood. It is progressive and can sometimes be treated with diet and exercise as well as a couple other methods as well as may require antidiabetic medicine and/or insulin injections.

Diabetes Insipidus is often confused with diabetes mellitus because of the similar name and symptoms. Diabetes insipidus is a rare disorder where the system the body uses to regulate its water levels becomes disrupted. 

Further on this site we will discuss methods to deal with diabetes