Diabetes is a serious medical condition that affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. Despite how complications frequently arise and how common it is, there’s still a general lack of knowledge of how diabetes works, specifically in regard to how sugars, especially glucose, impact the condition.
What Is Glucose?
Glucose is a type of sugar found throughout the human body that acts as the primary source of energy for cells. When you eat food, the caloric nutrients contained within are converted into glucose. Glucose is a very specific type of sugar that is designed to be absorbed and utilized by cells, so it’s similar, but ultimately distinct from other kinds of sugar like sucrose or fructose.
When being actively used, glucose is stored in the blood as it provides the means by which cells receive nutrients; the level of glucose found in the blood is known as “blood sugar.” When glucose is not in use, it’s either stored as fat or in a more easily accessible form called glycogen.
How Is Glucose Related to Diabetes?
To understand how glucose relates to diabetes, you first need to understand exactly what diabetes is.
Technically, diabetes is a medical condition in which blood sugar levels are chronically too high, although poor blood sugar regulation, in general, is a hallmark of the disease. Having excessively high blood sugar levels can cause serious long-term health complications, such as nerve damage, eye damage, kidney damage, and an increased risk for heart attack and stroke.
Diabetes can be broadly categorized into two different types:
- Type 1: This is more or less an autoimmune condition and involves the immune system attacking the pancreas, ultimately inactivating it. As the pancreas is primarily responsible for controlling blood sugar levels through insulin production, people with type 1 diabetes suffer from both chronically low and chronically low blood sugar, which must be constantly monitored.
- Type 2: Type 2 diabetes is when the body’s cells have trouble uptaking glucose and require additional insulin to do so. High blood sugar is the primary concern in this case and this version of the condition is typically seen in older or overweight individuals.
Essentially, glucose and diabetes are related in that diabetes interferes with the ability for glucose to be utilized properly. Either there is too much glucose in the blood, not enough, or it’s ineffectively absorbed into cells.
As a condition, diabetes can be very difficult to manage, but manufacturers, such as Tandem, have a wide range of products available to keep blood sugar levels stable, such as insulin pumps and infusion sets.
Being Informed
Diabetes is a common condition that comes with a long list of complications. Understanding how it works and especially how it relates to glucose absorption is absolutely imperative for managing the disease. If you, a loved one, or someone you’re acquainted with has developed the condition, then you really can’t afford to be ill-informed.