What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic health condition that occurs when your blood sugar is too high. Blood sugar comes from the food you eat and acts as your main energy source. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, is greatly impacted by diabetes. Insulin's main role is to facilitate the entry of food-derived glucose into your cells for energy. Insulin is affected differently based on the type of diabetes.

• Type 1: deficient insulin production. The immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Individuals suffering from this type need to take insulin every day to survive as it is essential for glucose to enter cells.

• Type 2: ineffective production or use of insulin, the most common type of diabetes. Requires careful maintenance of the body.

Additionally, gestational diabetes is a temporary condition that develops in some women when they are pregnant. Gestational diabetes usually has no symptoms and typically goes away after the baby is born. However, this condition puts the woman and the child at a greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

Most kinds of diabetes lack a precise known cause. In all cases, sugar builds up in the bloodstream as a result of inadequate insulin production by the pancreas. Diabetes of either type can result from a mix of hereditary and environmental causes. What those factors might be is unknown. Depending on the type of diabetes, different risk factors apply. In all types, family history could play a role. Geographical location and environmental factors can increase the risk of type 1 diabetes. Physical inactivity, race/ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American race or Pacific Islander), and certain health problems such as high blood pressure also affect your chance of developing type 2 diabetes. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes.