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Learn about diabetes

Blood Glucose Control

 

Patients' Guide to Insulin: About Diabetes

The purpose of the Patients' Guide to Insulin is to educate patients, parents, and caregivers about insulin treatment of diabetes.  By reviewing this information, you’re taking an important step to learn about diabetes and how insulin controls the disease to help you live a healthier life.

Symptoms of Hyperglycemia

The basic defect in all patients with diabetes is the decreased ability of insulin to induce cells of the body to remove glucose (sugar) molecules from the blood.  Whether this decreased insulin activity is due to a decreased amount of insulin produced (type 1 diabetes), or from the insensitivity of the cells to a n

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is much less common than type 2 diabetes and typically affects younger individuals. Type 1 diabetes usually begins before age 40, although there are exceptions. In the United States, the peak age at diagnosis is around 14. Type 1 diabetes is associated with deficiency (or lack) of insulin.

Treatment of Diabetes

The mainstays of diabetes treatment are:

Diabetes: What is Insulin?

Insulin is a hormone.

Assessing How Well Diabetes is Controlled

There are two common ways that physicians assess how well diabetes is controlled:  [1] Frequent measurements of blood glucose, and [2] measurement of glycohemoglobin (A1c).  Each method has its good and bad points, but combined they give a

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes is more common than Type 1 Diabetes.

Diagnosing Diabetes

In diagnosing diabetes, physicians primarily depend upon the results of specific glucose tests.  However, test results are just part of the information that goes into the diagnosis of type 1 or ty

Normal Regulation of Blood Glucose

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