EP04-01:What diabetes is

Today, I'd like to talk about what diabetes is. Diabetes, as the name suggests, means there is sugar in the urine, or rather, too much sugar.
•Why is there sugar in the urine? Because there is too much sugar in the blood.
•Why is there too much sugar in the blood? Because of insufficient insulin function or insufficient insulin quantity.
•Why does insufficient insulin function lead to too much sugar in the blood? Insulin's function is to enable tissue cells to use the sugar in the blood as an energy source. When insulin function is insufficient, the utilization of sugar decreases, naturally resulting in excessive sugar in the blood.
•Where is insulin produced? Insulin is produced in the pancreas.
•Why is insulin insufficient or not functioning well? Primarily due to physical constitution, and not because of eating too much sugar. Therefore, it's not eating too much sugar that causes diabetes. Rather, people with diabetes should not consume too much sugar.

Diabetes is fundamentally not a hereditary disease, but it has a familial link. If your parents have diabetes, your chances of getting diabetes are higher than others. The function of the pancreas declines with age, so as long as you live long enough, everyone has a chance of developing diabetes.
What happens if you get diabetes? Simply put, you will develop diabetic complications. There are about six major categories of diabetic complications, including those affecting the heart, blood vessels, eyes, liver, and kidneys. Therefore, it is very important to control blood sugar and prevent it from exceeding the normal range. Otherwise, over time, the kidneys, liver, heart, blood vessels, and eyes will be like being soaked in sugar water, leading to problems.
Most importantly, if you have diabetes, the first thing you must do is know that you have diabetes. Otherwise, everything else is futile.
Next time, we'll talk about how to know if you have diabetes.