What is Diabetes?
Diabetes affects your body’s ability to produce insulin. When we eat, our body digests the food and deposits glucose (sugar molecules) into our bloodstream. When our glucose levels get high, our body naturally releases insulin in order to signal that the glucose should be used for energy. This generally allows our body to maintain a safe glucose level in our bloodstream. When glucose gets too high, this can lead to health problems such as loss of vision, kidney failure, heart complications, neuropathy, and more. A person with diabetes struggles to produce, or cannot produce, insulin to counteract high glucose levels. Instead, they must manually monitor and adjust their glucose level with insulin injections and other medications. This is why self-management is so crucial.
