People with diabetes can’t properly process glucose. Glucose is a sugar the body uses to give us energy. When a person has diabetes, glucose moves through the bloodstream inefficiently. So even though you have high blood glucose levels, parts of your body may be starving for glucose.
After your food is digested, glucose passes into your bloodstream to be used by the cells in your body for growth and energy. For glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. The hormone insulin is produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.
When you eat, the pancreas is supposed to automatically produce the right amount of insulin needed to move the glucose from your blood into your cells. This is where people with diabetes run into problems; their pancreas either doesn’t produce any insulin or it produces too little or the cells don’t respond as they should to the insulin that is there.
Diabetes is a serious illness that isn’t curable, at this point in time, anyway. The good news is that diabetes is treatable and you can still live a good life if you take proper care of yourself.
