Diabetes around the World

Diabetes as most know it as, the original name is Diabetes mellitus. It’s a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced (Diabetes- Wikipedia). Insulin is the principle hormone that regulates uptake of glucose (sugar) from the blood into most cells, therefore, the insulin plays a central role in all forms of diabetes mellitus (Diabetes- Wikipedia). And the reason why I’m going to talk about diabetes is because the other day I saw my grandma give herself her own shot, needle and everything into her lower stomach area. And it was to give herself some insulin because, her body does not produce enough insulin. So when her blood sugar is slow, she has to give herself a injection of insulin.


Now tell me, when  you get a shot, it fricken hurts doesn’t it. So I asked my grandma the other day, “ Doesn’t that hurt when you do that?” And guess what she said. “ No, I’m used to it now, at first it did, but now I’m over it.” Wow isn’t she a trooper! Because I know that when I get shots, it brings a tear to my eye, because I cant stand the feeling of a needle getting underneath my skin. 


I didn’t ask her much about it, but I did some research. (The following information is from the website, Diabetes on Wikipedia.) There is three common kinds of diabetes mellitus; Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational Diabetes. Type 1 results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin. Which I think my grandma possibly has, seeing that she has to give herself injection of insulin. But I didn’t bother to ask because one, she hates when people ask and two, she finds it annoying that when she’s asked, there’s so many questions about it that she just doesn’t care. Anyway, Type 2 results from insulin resistant, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly.  Type 2 can lead to a stage that medications are used to improve insulin sensitivity or reduce glucose production . And Gestational Diabetes is when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a blood glucose (sugar) level during pregnancy. Gestational Diabetes can be treatable but if not treated, it can damage the health of the fetus or even the mother. I found out that in 2008, U.S. found that the number of American women entering pregnancy with preexisting diabetes is increasing which lead to the mother having some kind of diabetes later in the future. Seeing that insulin became available in 1921, all forms of diabetes are treatable. 


As of  2000 at least 171 million people worldwide have diabetes, and Type 2 diabetes is by far most common affecting 90 to 95% of the U.S. diabetes population. Which can lead to another possibility that my grandma could have, seeing its very common. But According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 18.3% (8.6 million) of Americans age 60 and older have diabetes. Evan though there is no cure for diabetes but there’s plenty of treatments such as medication, dieting, and exercising to control blood sugar and prevent symptoms (All this info. from website on American Diabetes Association- home page).


Now that I know a lot about diabetes maybe I’ll have the guts to ask my grandma about it. But my point is, diabetes can happen to anyone and everyone, like my sister she possibly might have diabetes. Even though she’s all around good kid, plays all sports and does a lot of extra circulars, one day at a doctors appointment and 10 minutes later your told  you might have diabetes. Now isn’t that just something, so it may be genetic or just because of something with your body isn’t doing something right, you possibly might have diabetes later in the future, just maybe.