What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces.
Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas, that acts like a key to let glucose from the food we eat pass from the blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy. All carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose in the blood. Insulin helps glucose get into the cells.
Not being able to produce insulin or use it effectively leads to raised glucose levels in the blood (known as hyperglycaemia). Over the long-term high glucose levels are associated with damage to the body and failure of various organs and tissues.
An individual without diabetes does not exceed 120 mg / dl in fasting blood glucose levels and 140 mg / dl in satiety (two hours after eating). If the level of blood sugar measured in fasting or satiety is above these values, it indicates the presence of diabetes.
Whether a person has diabetes is determined by Fasting Blood Glucose (FBS) or Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). The measurement of FBS is 100-125 mg / dl, which is the secret sugar (pre-diabetes) signal. The presence of diabetes mellitus is greater than 126 mg / dl or more.
Blood glucose value is important in OGTT after 2 hours ingestion of glucose-rich fluid. If the blood glucose level of the second hour is 140-199 mg / dl, then diabetes is diabetes inspudus, if latent sugar is 200 mg / dl or higher it called as diabetes.
