Diabetes

There are a lot of people in this world who have diabetes. But what does diabetes mean? Let’s understand it in a better way.

Diabetes is known to affect millions of people every year. You must be wondering with a health condition so widely present in so many people, there surely must be a cure right? Turns out, even though there have been many experiments made to find out the cure, there exists only treatment for it.

FUN FACT: Did you know that a lot of famous Bollywood actors like Sonam Kapoor and Fawad Khan also have diabetes !!

Your body is made up of a trillion cells. The food we eat is turned into sugar which is called glucose. This glucose travels to all the parts of the body through the bloodstream. Inside our body, there is an organ called the pancreas. This pancreas produces a chemical called as insulin, which helps all the body cells to use this glucose.

Now you might be wondering why do we need glucose in the first place? This glucose is needed by the cells to grow and it also gives them energy, indirectly giving our body energy to do work. Say, for example, you have diabetes; and therefore, your body has trouble controlling the glucose levels. This can be either if your pancreas is not making enough insulin or your body cells are not reacting to the insulin the way they should. Due to this, there’s a lot of glucose running around in your blood.

Having too much or less glucose in your blood can damage your heart, blood vessels, kidney, brain, nerves and make your eyesight worse and worse over many years.

The next question that might come to your mind might be- how do we recognize all this? There are some specific symptoms which might be an indication to you being diabetic. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Too much thirst or hunger
2. Peeing too often
3. Weight loss
4. Tiredness
5. Changes in vision
6. Slow healing cuts
7. Itching of your skin that goes on and on etc.

WORD OF THE DAY: Symptoms – a physical or mental feature which is regarded as indicating a condition of disease, particularly such a feature that is apparent to the patient.

In some cases, people with diabetes need to take daily insulin shots. Sometimes you can control this disease through diet and exercise and taking the medication by mouth. Even your doctor can help you come up with a diet and medicated plan to help balance your sugar levels. Some food items that can help in the same are fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, nuts, beans along with regular exercise. Following only one of them won’t help you get on your whole speed, you’ll have to keep the diet and exercise too.

Solve these questions to know whether you understood diabetes or not- 

Q1. Diabetes is due to an abnormal level of ___ in your body.

a)glucose b)glucose and protein c)fats d)none of the above

Q2. There’s a cure for diabetes.

a)True b)False

Q3. Can diabetes be controlled alone by exercising regularly?

a)False b)True

Q4. Which organ secretes insulin in our body?

a)Liver b)Stomach c)Heart d)Pancreas

Q5. Insulin helps in ____ the glucose levels in bloodstream.

a)increase b)decrease c)balancing d)it’s an alternating cycle of increase and decrease