Diabetes check, have you check yourself?

Image via WikipediaDiabetes mellitus, or the sugar and sweets disease. Every time we eat or drink, glucose ( a form of sugar in foods) levels in the blood rise. This in itself, isn't bad since your pancreas, produces hormone called insulin, Insulin enables glucose to enter the body's cells which, in turn use the sugar as an energy source. Without the insulin your elevated blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) will persist and cause serious health complications. Diabetes mellitus has two types, The insulin dependent type (Type 1) is the less common but more severe form. It usually appears in young people under the age of 35 and most commonly between the ages 10 and 16. The insulin producing cells of the pancreas are destroyed, probably as a result of an immune response to a viral infection and insulin production ceases almost completely. Without regular injections of insulin, the sufferer lapses into a comma and dies. The more common non insulin dependent type of diabetes or (Type 2), on the other hand, starts slowly and develops mainly on people over 40 and who are overweight. Nine out of ten diabetics suffer from non insulin dependent type. It is a silent disease and is always discovered accidentally during a routine medical examination or only after complications develop. Insulin is produced but not enough to meet the body's needs. Often the body develop resistance to insulin.

Ask yourself these questions to know if you have sugar problems:

• Do you pee a lot?
• Are you always thirsty and always hungry?
• Are you losing weight?
• Do you have vaginal itchiness?
• Is a member of your family diabetic?
• Are you overweight?
• Do your children have large birth weight?

So this is what happening, when our blood sugar increases it may cause a number of problems including wound infections, blindness, and kidney infections. A person with diabetes also increases his risk for heart disease by two or four times, and have has two to four times more chances of having a stroke. Unfortunately, there is no cure for diabetes, It is thus important to guard against becoming diabetic, because prevention is the key to diabetes.

Here's what to do, have a healthy diet. Lower your intake of saturated fats or fat from animal sources. Eat more fiber. Type 2 diabetes is a preventable disease, and can be avoided by eating and living healthy.

Exercise, Do so for for at least 30 minutes, five to seven times a week, If you're on the heavy side, lose weight. Studies have shown that losing five to 10 percent of your weight and eating healthy can swing the probability of you not developing diabetes by as much as 58 percent.