Diabetes by Litrease French

My father is a 47 year old African American and he has diabetes. I found out about his condition about a year ago.  At that point I made it my business to learn everything I could about diabetes. My father tried to make it seem as if it wasn’t serious, but we as his kids already knew the truth.  Some days he looks normal and is very active. Other days he just lay around looking exhausted. I can tell its getting worst because he doesn’t take care of himself the way he should.


Diabetes is a very serious condition that affects how your body uses glucose. Having too much glucose can seem harmless, but can be very dangerous. To understand diabetes I had to get the full understanding of how the body works. Glucose enters the bloodstream, then the pancreas make insulin to help store it in the muscle, fat, and liver for energy. If you have diabetes the body is not making enough insulin, or cell do not response to insulin.

There are three major types of diabetes: Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. Type 1 is more common for ages 40 and under. Normally it’s when the immune system destroys insulin producing cells of the pancreas. In cases like this injections of insulin is needed on a day to day basis. Type 2 Diabetes is when the body does produce insulin, but the body doesn’t use the insulin adequately.  This is also known as insulin resistance. Gestational Diabetes Mellitus is common in pregnant women. Having GDM can affect the baby by causing birth defects, and also increase the rate of miscarriages.

Some people live there lives day by day not knowing they having diabetes. They do this by ignoring the signs, and symptoms.  Some signs are weight loss, hunger, and excessive urinating. Having to much glucose in the blood is a very serious problem. Long term affect are you can damage or loss you eye sight. In many cases you can get heart disease, or have a stroke. In some extreme cases damage to your kidneys, and nerves. There are many effective ways to prevent or even control diabetes. Some examples are exercise, weight control, and a strict diet.

It is extremely important to test your blood sugar on at least on a day to day basis.  Although it maybe painful the most effect way to check you blood sugar is through the blood. Meters that stick the fingers, meters that test alternate sites like forearms, thumb, and thigh are some options given for testing. It has been proven that the most effective way to test is a stick to the figure. I can personally vouch for the some diabetes patients and say that figure prick hurts. I could only imagine how it feels when you have to test 4 and 5 times a day.

In closing  diabetes is a silent yet deadly killer, and it  is very important that  we take  care of our bodies and our bodies will take care of us.