The Connection Between Diabetes And Your Pancreas

The Connection Between Diabetes and Your Pancreas

A direct connection exists between the pancreas and diabetes. The pancreas is an organ deep in your abdomen behind your stomach. It’s an important part of your digestive system. The pancreas produces enzymes and hormones that help you digest food. One of those hormones, insulin, is necessary to regulate glucose. Glucose refers to sugars in your body. Every cell in your body needs glucose for energy. Think of insulin as a lock to the cell. Insulin must open the cell to allow it to use glucose for energy.
If your pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t make good use of it, glucose builds up in your bloodstream, leaving your cells starved for energy. When glucose builds up in your bloodstream, this is known as hyperglycemia. The symptoms of hyperglycemia include thirst, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Low glucose, known as hypoglycemia, also causes many symptoms, including shakiness, dizziness, and loss of consciousness.
Hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia can quickly become life-threatening.
Each type of diabetes involves the pancreas not functioning properly. The way in which the pancreas doesn’t function properly differs depending on the type. No matter what type of diabetes you have, it requires ongoing monitoring of blood glucose levels so you can take the appropriate action.
Type 1 diabetes
In type 1 diabetes the immune system erroneously attacks the beta cells that produce insulin in your pancreas. It causes permanent damage, leaving your pancreas unable to produce insulin. Exactly what triggers the immune system to do that isn’t clear. Genetic and environ Continue reading

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Diabetes could be cured as scientists find cause of disease

Diabetes could be cured after scientists discovered that toxic clumps of a hormone stop cells producing insulin.
Scientists at Manchester University have found that both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are driven by the same underlying mechanism.
The findings suggest that both forms occur when the hormone amylin begins to clump together, surrounding cells, and preventing them from producing insulin.
Insulin is essential for moving sugar from the blood stream into muscles and fatty tissue to provide energy. But too little insulin allows dangerous levels of glucose to build up in the blood, causing damage to the heart kidneys, eyes and nerves.
However the new finding could pave the way for drugs which stop the amylin build-up in the first place or dissolve clumps which are already present.
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More than three million people in Britain have been diagnosed with diabetes, with that figure expected to five million by 2025.
The vast majority of sufferers (85 per cent) have Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, poor diet and sedentary lifestyles.
More than 70,000 deaths a year occur among those suffering from the condition - one in seven of all deaths.
The pancreas produces both insulin and amylin Continue reading

Nine signs you're on a fast track to diabetes – and what you can do about it

Anyone in need of a cautionary tale to emphasise the importance of Diabetes Awareness Week should look no further than Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks.
Last year, the star of Forest Gump and The Da Vinci Code admitted that he felt a "total idiot" after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2013. Hanks believes that he developed the condition as a result of his past poor diet.
"I was heavy," he said in an interview with the Radio Times. "You've seen me in movies, you know what I looked like. I was a total idiot.
"'I'm part of the lazy American generation that has blindly kept dancing through the party and now finds ourselves with a malady," Hanks added.
But could Hanks, who said that he was "feeling just fine" when he received the news three years ago, have predicted that he was heading for a diabetes diagnosis?
"Type 2 diabetes is the commoner form," says Roy Taylor, Professor of Medicine and Metabolism at the University of Newcastle, "accounting for around 90 per cent of all diabetes diagnoses.
"And whilst Type 1 can come on relatively rapidly, and be recognised through unexplained weight loss, Type 2 diabetes – which alone accounts for the current, weight-related epidemic of diabetes – typically comes on more insidiously."
According to the NHS website, "Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to function properly, or the body’s cells don't react to insulin. This means that glucose stays in the blood and isn't used as fuel for energy."
So, with more than one in 16 people in the UK living with diabetes, and a new diagnosis being made every Continue reading

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness And Long Naps May Be A Sign Of Type 2 Diabetes

We all get tired throughout the day; 2 p.m. hits and suddenly you’re searching for the coffee pot with your eyes half closed. But could being tired throughout your day indicate something more? Researchers from the University of Tokyo found evidence that this might be so. Presenting their findings at the annual meeting of the European Association for the study of Diabetes (EASD), they have reason to believe sleepiness throughout the day, along with taking longer daytime naps may be linked to type 2 diabetes.
Sleep is not only a blissful experience, it is also essential to your health. Though we need a good night’s sleep to recuperate from our day, and consolidate memories from our waking hours, sleep in excess can be detrimental to our health. According to the study, led by Dr. Tomohide Yamada of the University of Tokyo, daytime sleepiness, along with napping, is rampant around the world. While most people know to keep their naps brief, others will nap for hours on end, and this can be potentially dangerous. In addition to this, researchers have found that naps can become habitual, as people will carve out a few minutes to a few hours each day just for sleeping.
To find the possible repercussions of excessive sleepiness and napping, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of a range of international studies regarding sleep and type 2 diabetes. Looking through various sources, including Medline, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science, researchers selected 10 studies consisting of 261,365 people. The studies came from a multitude of different countries, with research selected Continue reading

One third of Americans are headed for diabetes, and they don't even know it

One third of Americans may be on their way to developing full-blown type 2 diabetes, and most of them don't even know it.
A recent report from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more than 84 million Americans, or roughly one-third of the population, have prediabetes, a condition marked by higher-than-normal blood sugar. Of that group, 90 percent aren't aware they have the condition.
The primary risk factors for type 2 diabetes are genetics and lifestyle — excess weight, obesity and lack of exercise contribute to this alarming medical trend. "People with prediabetes who don't change their lifestyle are at a much higher risk of developing heart disease and stroke and can develop type 2 diabetes within five years if left untreated," said William T. Cefalu, MD, chief scientific, medical & mission officer of the American Diabetes Association.
The health risks go beyond heart disease and stroke. As diabetes worsens over time, blindness, kidney disease and lower-limb amputation are also major health risks. Diabetes was the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States in 2015, according to the CDC. This population of diabetes "ticking time bombs" is particularly alarming, because in many cases type 2 diabetes can be avoided, simply by leading a healthy lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes is often progressive, and within 10 years of diagnosis, 50 percent of individuals need to use insulin to control their blood glucose levels, according to the ADA.
More than 30 million Americans — 9.4 percent of the U.S. population — are already battling diabetes, ac Continue reading