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Women Column

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 6/2/2020 11:06:31 AM

Women face Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease in which
blood sugar (glucose) levels in
your body are too high. Diabetes
can cause serious health problems,
including heart attack or stroke,
blindness, problems during pregnancy,
and kidney failure. About
15 million women in the United
States have diabetes, or about 1 in
every 9 adult women.
The three main types of diabetes
are:
•Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is
an autoimmune disease, meaning
the body's immune (defense) system
attacks and destroys the cells
in the pancreas that make insulin.
If you have type 1 diabetes, your
body does not make insulin, so you
must take insulin every day.
•Type 2 diabetes. This is the most
common type of diabetes. You can
get type 2 diabetes at any age, even
during childhood. With type 2 diabetes,
your body does not make
enough insulin or is not able to use
its own insulin correctly. When
this happens, blood glucose levels
rise.
Gestational diabetes. Gestational
diabetes is a type of diabetes that
happens only during pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes can cause
health problems for the baby and
the mother if not controlled.
Although gestational diabetes goes
away after your baby is born, having
diabetes during pregnancy
raises your risk for type 2 diabetes
later on. Learn more about gestational
diabetes at the National
Diabetes Information
Clearinghouse.
Type 1 diabetes usually develops
in children and young adults, but
it can happen at any age. It is more
common in non-Hispanic whites
and non-Hispanic blacks than in
Hispanic populations. About 5% of
people with diabetes have type 1
diabetes.1 If you have a parent or
sibling with the disease you may
be more likely to develop type 1
diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is more common in
adults, especially in people who
are 45 and older, have a family history
of diabetes, or have overweight
or obesity. About 90–95% of
people with diabetes have type 2
diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is becoming
more common in children and
teens, which may be because more
of them have overweight and obesity.
Researchers do not know the exact
causes of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Researchers do know that
inheriting certain genes from your
family can raise your risk for
developing diabetes.