Introduces diabetes, describes the types of diabetes, looks at symptoms, and describes treatments.

1. A Guide to Diabetes

2. What is diabetes?
• When blood glucose (blood
sugar) is too high
• Blood glucose is sugar found
in blood and is main source
of energy
• Glucose is from food, and is
also made in the liver and
muscles
• Blood carries glucose to
cells for energy

3. Insulin
• Insulin helps your blood carry
glucose to the body’s cells
• It is produced in the pancreas
• Sometimes body doesn’t make
enough insulin OR insulin doesn’t
work like it should
• Glucose stays in the blood and
doesn’t reach the cells
• Result is that blood glucose levels
get too high and can cause
diabetes or prediabetes

4. Important notes
• Diabetes is a METABOLIC disease
(how the body uses digested food
for growth and energy)
• Insulin is necessary for glucose to
get into cells
• With diabetes, the pancreas
produces little or no insulin, or the
cells don’t respond properly to the
insulin
• Glucose builds up in blood,
overflows into urine and passes
out of body in urine
• So, body loses main source of fuel,
even though it has glucose!

6. 4 types of diabetes
• Prediabetes
• Type 1
• Type 2
• Gestational

7. Prediabetes
• Prediabetes is when blood glucose
is above normal but not high
enough to be called diabetes
• With prediabetes, your risk of
getting diabetes, heart attack and
stroke increase
• With weight loss and moderate
physical activity, you can delay or
prevent type 2 diabetes, or even
return to normal levels without
medications

8. Type 1 Diabetes
• Autoimmune disease
• Immune system attacks and
destroys the insulin-producing cells
in the pancreas
• So the pancreas produces little or
no insulin
• Must take insulin to live
• If not diagnosed or treated, patient
can go into a diabetic coma and die.

9. Type 2 Diabetes
• Most common type of diabetes
• 90 to 95% have type 2
• Associated with age, obesity, family
history, previous history with gestational,
physical inactivity and ethnicity
• About 80% are overweight or obese
• Pancreas is producing insulin, but body
can’t use insulin (called insulin resistance)
• As a result, insulin production decreases
• Type 2 onset is slow and gradual. You may
experience hunger and thirst, weight loss,
blurred vision and slow healing of wounds.

10. Gestational diabetes
• Developed by some women late in
pregnancy
• About 3 to 8% develop, could be
related to family history and
ethnicity.
• Women who have had this have 40
to 60% chance of developing Type
2 diabetes within 5 to 10 years
• Maintaining reasonable weight and
exercising may help prevent

12. Signs and Symptoms of
diabetes
• Being thirsty
• Urinating often
• Feeling very hungry
• Feeling very tired
• Losing weight without trying
• Sores that heal slowly
• Dry, itchy skin
• Feelings of pins and needles in your feet
• Losing feeling in your feet
• Blurry eyesight
If you aren’t sure, see your doctor. The only
way to tell is to have a blood test.

13. How it is diagnosed
• A fasting blood glucose test is most
reliable
• Done after an 8 hour fast
• The Oral glucose tolerance test
(OGTT) has you drink a beverage
with glucose and measures blood
glucose after 2 hours
• A random blood test can measure
blood glucose at that time.

15. Treatment for Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes
• Healthy eating
• Physical activity
• Insulin
• Measure blood
glucose levels
Type 2 diabetes
• Healthy eating
• Physical activity
• Blood glucose
testing
• Maybe a medication
to control blood
glucose levels

16. Why treat diabetes?
• Diabetes creates an increased risk
of cardiovascular disease (at least
65% of those with diabetes die
from heart disease or stroke)
• It also has multiple side effects for
untreated diabetes for the eyes,
kidneys, nerves, gum and teeth.

17. Symptoms of untreated diabetes
• No symptoms if you are developing heart
disease!
• Vision problems (vision loss, or pain in your
eye)
• No symptoms if you have diabetes related
kidney disease
• Tingling, numbness, burning, shooting or
stabbing pain in feet, hands or other parts of
body.
• Sexual problems, digestive problems, difficulty
controlling bladder, dizziness and fainting,
unable to know when blood sugar is low.