NEWSKILL: Living with Diabetes

Diabetes runs in my family and I recently put up some web pages on my work's site that a faculty member put together about living with diabetes.

Basic understanding of diabetes treatment is three-fold.

1. Diet
2. Exercise
3. Medicine

Diabetes is a disease that is caused by the lack of, or a bodies improper use of insulin. Insulin is natural hormone in the body which basically takes the sugar from our food and turns it into energy for our body. There are two types of diabetes appropriately labeled Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is often diagnosed in early childhood, if you have access to doctors, and results from your body not creating insulin effectively starving your body of energy. Type 1 cases represent approximately 5-10% of diabetes cases*. Type 2 diabetes is most common and is a result of low insulin counts or inefficiency in insulin and energy creation.

Other than being starved of energy, Diabetes can lead to high blood sugar which can damage kidneys, eyes, your heart and other parts of your body.

Depending on your Type and the severity diabetes can be managed by exercise, which helps increase the efficiency of insulin's functions, or diet to manage the blood sugar levels in our bodies, or with shots of insulin or other medication to increase our ability to convert energy.

Looking at all this info it worries me about those who don't have access to a physician. This disease can go undiagnosed by individuals unaware of its symptoms so hopefully the spread of this information will allow people to help others that don't know.

Below are some links to pertinent Diabetes information.
*information I presented here is a mix of my experiences with my family and from the American Diabetes Association

http://www.diabetes.org/
http://www.diabeteseducator.org/
http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/
http://www.ndei.org/ (an education initiative about Type 2 Diabetes)
http://www.uvm.edu/extension/food/?Page=diabetes.html&SM=diabet...(recipes and programs in VT)