Learn About Diabetes

20.8 million Children and adults suffer from diabetes in the United States. 6.2 million Of those people don’t even know they have the disease. Because this disease has affected so many of us each of us has a responsibility to be aware of the disease, know what it is and how to get checked out.

Diabetes is a disease that is diagnosed by the low production or misuse of insulin in the body. The body uses Insulin as a hormone that converts sugar, starches and other food into energy that the body uses in order to survive. There are two types of diabetes: diabetes 1 and diabetes 2. The difference between the two is that the second diabetes is more serious. The symptoms of diabetes 1 are: frequent urination, excessive thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, increased fatigue, irritability and blurry vision. Diabetes 2 consists of all these symptoms and more. If you have any of these symptoms on a regular basis you may want to consult your doctor and he/she will help you find out if you have diabetes and how to it needs to be treated. For those who don’t have the disease you can still help by donating money to research on diabetes and you can do this through the Diamond Ruff Project. A percentage of the Diamond Ruff proceeds will be given to the several diabetes associations.

American Diabetes Association, "All About Diabetes." 5 Jul 2008 http://www.diabetes.org/about-diabetes.jsp

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