What is diabetes?

Many people suffer from diabetes . The condition used to be called diabetes mellitus , but the official name for diabetes is actually diabetes mellitus . There are several forms of diabetes, including the well-known type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Understanding these forms of diabetes can help you control blood sugar.

Blood sugar level

The commonality between all the different types of diabetes is that the body has problems regulating blood sugar levels. Normally, the blood sugar level is maintained by the body producing more or less insulin . This has been disrupted in diabetic patients. What exactly goes wrong differs per type of diabetes.

Blood sugar

The amount of blood sugar, or blood glucose, in the body fluctuates throughout the day. When you have just eaten, carbohydrates from the diet are converted into glucose, which ends up in the bloodstream. This means that the blood sugar level goes up. People without diabetes now produce the hormone insulin .

This hormone ensures that the glucose from the blood is absorbed by the body cells that use it as fuel. This lowers the glucose level in the blood. In diabetic patients, this system that regulates blood sugar no longer works properly, with the result that too much sugar remains in the blood for too long. And that can have unpleasant health consequences.

Diabetes type 1

Type 1 diabetes occurs in approximately 1 in 10 diabetes patients. It's an autoimmune disease , meaning the body accidentally has an immune response to something that isn't actually dangerous.

In this case, the immune system thinks that the hormone insulin poses a health hazard, so it is attacked and rendered harmless. As a result, the blood sugar level can no longer be maintained and it continues to rise. And that causes complications.

Diabetes type 2

Most people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, about 9 out of 10 . In this type of diabetes, not enough insulin is produced to remove blood sugar from the blood and transport it to the cells of the body.

Besides the fact that not enough insulin is produced, the body also reacts insufficiently to the insulin . So it actually needs more insulin, not less. Because less insulin is produced, but still some, and the body reacts less well, but still a little, you can live with type 2 diabetes for a long time without being diagnosed.

Because it often happens gradually, it can sometimes take years before someone knows what is going on. And in those years the health problems become more and more serious.

Other Types of Diabetes

In addition to the two known types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, there are a number of other conditions that are also known to be a form of diabetes. Gestational diabetes is a special type of diabetes.

Gestational diabetes

This occurs in about one in twenty pregnant women. In this form of diabetes, the body is temporarily unable to produce enough insulin. The diabetes usually goes away immediately after giving birth, although if you have had gestational diabetes you have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Your baby can also develop diabetes very early, although this form of diabetes is very rare.

Neonatal diabetes

In neonatal diabetes, as it is called, there is not enough insulin produced due to a genetic defect. This form of diabetes is usually detected in the first six months of life.

FASHION

The hormone insulin is produced in the pancreas. Some people have a congenital defect of the pancreas, which means that not enough insulin can be produced. This form of diabetes is called MODY.

MIDD

Another hereditary form of diabetes in which the pancreas does not make enough insulin is MIDD. Patients with this form of diabetes often also suffer from hearing impairment or even deafness.

LADA

One form of type 1 diabetes that is often mistaken for type 2 diabetes is LADA. LADA starts very slowly and gradually, just like type 1 diabetes, but the cells that make the insulin are actually destroyed by the body. So this is type 1 diabetes.

Because the diagnosis of LADA is often wrong, the treatment often goes wrong. And that can have negative consequences for the course of the disease.

High and Low Blood Sugar Levels

All diabetes patients can suffer from a blood sugar level that is too high, because the blood glucose is not sufficiently transported to the body cells. A blood sugar level that is too high is also called a 'hyper'.

Hyper

It is important to control diabetes as soon as possible if this happens. Drinking a lot of water and urinating helps, but also burning sugar by, for example, going for a walk. Patients who inject insulin can of course also inject additional insulin.

Hypo

The opposite of a 'hyper' is a 'hypo', having a blood sugar level that is too low. This also sometimes occurs in people who do not have diabetes. They often solve this by eating something or drinking something sweet. The same advice applies to diabetic patients. But because their 'hypo' is worse than a bit of a faint feeling, they also have to eat a bit more, for example a few tablets of grape sugar.

The last twenty years has seen a rapid increase worldwide in the number of patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Especially the number of cases of type 2 diabetes is increasing rapidly. This type of diabetes is also occurring in more and more people at an increasingly younger age.