Diabetes
Diabetes is a long-term condition that causes high blood sugar levels.
Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal. The food we eat is turned into glucose or sugar for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies.
When you have diabetes, your body either can’t make enough insulin or can’t use its own insulin successfully. This causes sugar to build up in your blood.
Diabetes can lead to other diseases such as heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and amputations.
Diabetes Complications
Diabetes can cause serious health complications including:
- Heart disease
- Blindness
- Kidney failure
- Amputations of the foot or leg
Type 1 Diabetes
- In type 1 diabetes the body does not make insulin.
- People with type 1 need to take insulin every day.
- Learn more about type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 risk factors
- Autoimmune, genetic and environmental factors
Type 2 Diabetes
- In type 2 diabetes the body does not make or use insulin well.
- People with type 2 often need to take pills or insulin.
- Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes.
- Learn more about type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 risk factors
- Being older in age
- Being obese
- Having a family history of diabetes
- Having a prior history of gestational diabetes
- Having an impaired glucose tolerance
- Doing little physical activity
- Race/Ethnicity ( African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are particularly at risk for type 2 diabetes)
Gestational
- Gestational diabetes may occur when a woman is pregnant.
- Gestational diabetes raises a woman’s risk of getting type 2 diabetes over the course of her life.
- It raises her child’s risk of being overweight and getting diabetes.
- American Diabetes Association recommends all pregnant women who have not been previously diagnosed with diabetes get tested for gestational diabetes between 24 to 48 weeks.
- For women who have risk factors for type 2 diabetes, the American Diabetes Association recommends testing for undiagnosed type 2 diabetes at the first prenatal visit.
Diabetes Prevention, Management, and Education
It is important that people with diabetes make healthy food choices, stay at a healthy weight, and be physically active every day.
- For resources on making lifestyle changes now, such as eating healthier foods and getting more physical activity, that can prevent type 2 diabetes, visit our Diabetes Prevention and Management page.