Diabetes means your body doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone made by a gland near your stomach called the pancreas. Your body uses insulin to carry sugar from your bloodstream to your cells. Sugar is the “fuel” your body needs for all your activities – whether it’s breathing, reading, walking or running. Your body changes the food you eat into a sugar called glucose. When you have diabetes, sugar isn’t carried properly to your cells, so too much stays in your bloodstream. This is called hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar. Left untreated, high blood sugar can cause a lot of damage to your body.
What is Type 1 Diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, but it usually occurs in children and young adults. That’s why it often is called “Juvenile” diabetes. With type 1 diabetes, your body makes little or no insulin.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. It usually occurs in people over the age of 40. With type 2 diabetes, your body does not make enough insulin or your cells resist the insulin.
What is Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that occurs ONLY in pregnant women who do not already have diabetes. Only a small number of women are affected. This type of diabetes usually goes away once the baby is born and occurs at about the 24th week of pregnancy, when your body makes large amounts of hormones to help your baby grow. These hormones keep your insulin from working the way it should. When this happens, your blood sugar rises.
High blood sugar will cause your baby to grow large and make insulin. Don’t worry – most women with gestational diabetes have healthy babies. Still, the gestational diabetes has to be treated until your baby is born. Keeping your blood sugar as near normal as possible will help prevent problems for you and your baby.
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