Frequently Asked Questions

Diabetes is a condition where the body is unable to use sugar that is consumed through food appropriately because of insulin deficiency, so our body doesn’t produce enough insulin. Before diabetes develops, there is a condition that we call pre-diabetes, or at high risk for diabetes or early diabetes, borderline diabetes – are some of the terms that have been used in the past. This condition is where there is still insulin available in the body to store sugar that we eat, but it’s not effective as a normal individual. So, there’s the response of the body is to actually produce more insulin to get the same goal: blood sugar, to be normal. And then over time, as we utilize all of our insulin and that insulin supply is depleted and goes down, then diabetes develops. If someone is diagnosed with pre-diabetes or is told by their doctor that they have a risk of diabetes, the lifestyle changes that could prevent full blown diabetes would be changing lifestyle habits, like sedentary lifestyles and becoming more active, eating less, losing weight, being more attentive to portion control. Many people in the early phases of pre-diabetes or even diabetes can reverse that inability to use insulin effectively, and control their blood sugars.

There are two types of diabetes. One is type 2 diabetes, which is 95 percent of the cases of diabetes. It’s usually associated with a person who is getting older, but also the risk factors of getting type 2 diabetes is there is a little bit of genetics, so if a parent or siblings have type 2 diabetes, if we’re overweight, if we’re eating too much, if we’re not moving around enough, most of the time it develops as our ages progress, so age is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. The difference between type 2 diabetes and type 1 diabetes is that in type 2 diabetes, there is insulin available to use for storage of calories. That, over time, depletes, and therefore, the blood sugars rise and people need to add medications or insulin to their regimen to control their blood sugars. In type 1 diabetes, the insulin supply in our pancreas actually gets degraded or broken down or destroyed by our immune systems. There are some genetics related to type 1 diabetes, but it’s not as prevalent as type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes typically occurs in lean, young individuals; however, there are some instances where older individuals can be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association guidelines suggest that individuals keep their fasting blood sugars between 80 and 130, and no blood sugar throughout the day greater than 180. This would correlate to a hemoglobin A1c, which is an average three-month blood sugar test, of less than 7 percent. The reason there are guidelines about blood sugar control are because higher blood sugars than that have been shown to promote the progression of complications of diabetes like, numbness, tingling, neuropathies, vision loss or retinopathy, and also kidney disease.

If you’re finding that your blood sugars are out of those guidelines that your doctor has set for you, keeping him or her informed of that is very important.  On occasion, you only see your doctor every three months or every six months for management and recommendations for your blood sugars; however, if you’re monitoring at home and seeing a trend where your blood sugars are rising, it would be a good thing to contact your physician. You may need a medication adjustment. However, those activities or habits that may have slowly changed into old bad habits, you can re-address, so whether you should look at your portion sizes at the time of your meals, whether seasonally because the weather has changed you’re not exercising as much, so keeping in mind how you can control your diabetes, how you move your body, and how you eat is all in your control, and re-addressing the good habits you should have would be your first measure and then the next measure, of course, being in good communication with your physician.