Ever wondered why people refer to diabetes as ‘sugar’? Some even assume that diabetes is caused by sugar. There’s a connection for sure, but diabetes is a much more complex health condition.
What’s more alarming is how common diabetes is.
It doubles the risk of death. And every 20 seconds one person loses their leg somewhere in the world due to diabetes.
Globally, more than 530 million people are affected by it, and this is expected to reach a half billion by the end of this decade. Recently, the World Bank reported that in Sri Lanka, 11.3% of the adult population (between the ages of 20 and 79) have diabetes. That’s quite a significant number and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Therefore, you should know a few very important things about diabetes.
Diabetes in Simple Terms
Your body transforms a lot of the food you eat into sugar (glucose) and releases it into your bloodstream. When your blood sugar increases, it signals the pancreas to create insulin. Insulin is used to convert blood sugar into energy.
With diabetes, your body doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use it that well. This leads to having too much blood sugar in your bloodstream. When this builds up, this can lead to many serious health problems like heart disease, vision loss and kidney failure.
The poor health condition due to the high blood sugar level is called Diabetes.