Diabetes is a serious chronic disease that affects a growing number of people. But diabetes can be controlled. It can even be prevented! Learn more about diabetes with the answers to the following questions.

What is diabetes? – What are signs and symptoms of diabetes? –
What are the types of diabetes? – Am I at risk of developing diabetes? – What is pre-diabetes? – What are the serious consequences of diabetes? – How can diabetes be controlled? – Can diabetes be prevented?

What is diabetes?

Your body needs energy. It turns much of the food you eat into glucose (sugar) for your body to use as energy. The pancreas, an organ near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps glucose get into your body’s cells. When you have diabetes, your body doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use its own insulin very well. But, your body continues to convert the food you eat into glucose, so guess what happens? Your body has too much blood sugar.  This is diabetes.

Diabetes is a serious disease. If it is not controlled, it can lead to serious consequences.

Nearly 21 million Americans have diabetes, but almost one-third of them do not know they have it. In 2005, almost 337,000 Missourians reported they had diabetes. When you compare that to only 313,000 Missourians reporting diabetes in 2004, you can see that diabetes is a fast growing public health problem.

What are signs and symptoms of diabetes?

Some people with diabetes will not experience any symptoms while others will have one or more of the following:

• Being very thirsty
• Urinating a lot—often at night
• Having blurry vision from time to time
• Feeling very tired much of the time
• Losing weight without trying
• Having very dry skin
• Having sores that are slow to heal

What are the types of diabetes?

There are three main types of diabetes:

• Type 1 requires the person take insulin to stay alive. Five to 10 percent of people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes. Type 1 used to be called “juvenile” diabetes since it starts at a young age.
• Type 2 occurs when the body does not produce enough or cannot use insulin properly. In the past, type 2 diabetes was diagnosed only in adults. Now, children and youth are developing type 2 diabetes. Type 2 is controlled with diet, exercise and often with medicines. Some adults with type 2 diabetes may need to take insulin.
• Gestational diabetes is diagnosed in some women during pregnancy. It is a temporary form of glucose intolerance. But women who develop gestational diabetes in pregnancy may develop type 2 diabetes later in life.

Am I at risk of developing diabetes?

Know your risk of diabetes by completing the diabetes risk test (.pdf). The following characteristics make people more likely to get type 2 diabetes:

• Having a family history of diabetes
• Having a history of gestational diabetes, or giving birth to at least one baby weighing 9 pounds or more
• Being of African American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian/Pacific Islander heritage.
• Being inactive, or exercising less than three times a week
• Being overweight
• Being age 45 or older
• Having high blood pressure
• Having abnormal lipid levels (cholesterol or triglycerides)
• Having previously been diagnosed with pre-diabetes

What is pre-diabetes?

Before people develop type 2 diabetes, they almost always have “pre-diabetes.” This is blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. As many as 54 million people in the United States have pre-diabetes. Recent research has shown that some long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system, may already have started during pre-diabetes. Know your risk of pre-diabetes by completing the pre-diabetes risk test (pdf).

What are the serious consequences of diabetes?

Diabetes can affect many parts of the body.  It can lead to serious complications such as blindness, kidney damage, loss of teeth, heart attack, stroke, and lower-limb amputation. To prevent these problems, people need to learn to control their diabetes.  

How can diabetes be controlled?

Diabetes cannot be cured. But it can be controlled. People with diabetes and their health care providers can work together to control their levels for blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol (blood lipids). People with diabetes need to receive other important preventive care practices like foot exams, eye exams, dental exams, and flu and pneumonia shots. They need to check their own blood sugar as their doctor recommends. They need to get a special blood sugar check called an A1C (A-one-C) two to four times a year. They need to keep their weight down and be physically active.

Can diabetes be prevented?

Some of the risk factors listed above cannot be changed, like your age or your family history. Other things you can change, like how much you weigh, how much you exercise, and what you eat.  Any change you make for the better can help you delay or prevent getting diabetes.

For more information on diabetes, see our diabetes fact sheet (.pdf) or check out the websites listed under related links.