One of the most baffling health problems facing Americans is diabetes, which attacks in various stages with little or no regard to age, race or social status. When first diagnosed, patients may have some confusion about what is diabetes and how it will affect their life and their future. The initial reaction for many involves dietary changes and may include thoughts of the progress of the disease and how it affected others they knew.

While diabetes can cause a assemblage of health problems including blindness, kidney and heart problems today’s medical practices can help people with diabetes live a long and healthy life. There are different classifications of what is diabetes, including Type 2 diabetes, or adult onset diabetes, childhood diabetes and gestational diabetes, most describing the age or circumstance at which the disease becomes apparent. Testing for diabetes should be done if a person’s family history indicates a tendency to contracting the ailment or they have any of the known symptoms.

For many, testing may show that they have pre-diabetes and in most cases a change in lifestyle, including diet and exercise can help slow the progression of the disease and possible stop them from contracting full-blown diabetes. Diabetes is what it is called when the insulin in the body is not being produced in a quantity sufficient enough to work the blood glucose through the system, or the insulin being produced cannot perform its job.

Medical Mediation Is Usually Required:

Without the cells receiving the energy-giving sugar, the cells cannot function up to par and what is diabetes can often result in kidney failure, heart failure and stoke if left unnoticed or untreated. Medication is available to help increase the body’s production of insulin or to help the body’s insulin perform more efficiently.

When a person is diagnosed with what is diabetes, in addition to lifestyle changes they may also require medication to help the body deal with the sugar in the bloodstream. When food is digested, carbohydrates are converted into sugar, which the body needs for energy. Insulin is used to help the sugar find its way to the cells, providing energy. If anything along this line breaks down, the sugar remains in the bloodstream or moves into tissues where it does little good.

With appropriate medical help and a change in diet and exercise, a person diagnosed with what is diabetes can live a long a healthy life. Once the diagnosis has been made, the patient and doctor must continue to observe the progress to insure the medication is making the effect expected.

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