To really understand your diabetes diagnosis and how diabetes affects you, you need to learn something about your pancreas, the long and thin situated behind our stomach.

The pancreas is responsible for regulating the body’s use of glucose (sugar). It has two main functions:

1) to produce pancreatic endocrine hormones which assist in regulating our metabolism

2) to produce pancreatic digestive enzymes.

When the blood glucose levels begin to rise, it is insulin’s job to push muscle and fat cells to absorb whatever glucose they need for future activities.

There are some people who do not produce enough insulin (Type 1 diabetes), and many, many more people whose body resists whatever insulin is produced (Type 2 diabetes), and more insulin from an outside source is necessary. Either way, the result is the same.

If not treated, diabetes can cause blood vessel damage, gangrene, heart attack, kidney damage, nerve damage, stork and vision problems.