Did you know that there are 23.6 million adults and children who have
diabetes. It is estimated about 17.9 million people in America are diagnosed with
diabetes and about 5.7 million people, about one third of the U.S., don’t even know that they have the disease(Seibel). Diabetes is a disease when a person’s body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar and other foods for energy needed for daily life. When this happens to your insulin it gives you higher blood glucose levels because the sugar builds up in your blood(“All About Diabetes“). The important factors of learning about this disease are the types of diabetes, the causes of this disease, how diabetes impacts the US, and the treatments.
There are two types of diabetes, type one and type two. The differences between the types of diabetes are that type one occurs when the body fails to produce insulin. With Type I diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Consequently, anyone with Type I diabetes must receive daily insulin injections. The insulin must be injected into the body because if it is taken orally, stomach acids will make the insulin ineffective to the body. The primary targets for this type of diabetes are children and young adults, but it can affect people of any age. Out of the entire diabetes population, approximately five to ten percent of the diabetics have Type I(Seibel).
Type two occurs when your fails to properly use insulin. Most Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes have type two. Accounting for 90 to 95 percent of the diabetic population are people who have Type II diabetes(Seibel). The problem in this type of diabetes is that the beta cells do not produce enough insulin to meet the needs of the body. In addition to this problem, the cells in the body do not react appropriately to the available insulin in the body because they cannot admit glucose through the cell membranes. The cause of diabetes is not yet...