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Jamie Phipps
Nutrition 201
Online Nutrition Class
Diabetes in My Family
In my family a huge medical issue is diabetes. My father and grandparents
all have had diabetes and suffered from complications of diabetes. It has been a
tough experience watching them deal with the everyday maintenance that goes
along with diabetes and can also be very time consuming. This has always been
something I’ve been worried about because I know this could be a possibility for
me if I don’t watch my diet and how much I exercise and when diabetes goes
untreated or uncared for properly it can be fatal and be the cause other issues in
your health. Since watching people deal with diabetes has been a big part of my
life that is why I have decided to write about it. It’s something I am for sure
worried about but don’t know all the ways I can prevent myself form getting this
disease. Diabetes is a group of diseases that results in too much sugar in the
blood. There are different types of diabetes. Gestational is high blood sugar that
only effects pregnant women. The mom produces around three times more of
the amount of insulin that she needs to counteract all the hormone changes but
if she can’t produce enough insulin then she develops gestational diabetes. This
is usually not a permanent condition and can be regulated by checking blood
sugar regularly, watching what you at and make sure you are eating regularly. It
is something that is usually watched closely by a doctor during the woman’s
pregnancy because it can be harmful for both the mom and child if blood sugar
levels become too high or low.
Prediabetes is when your blood sugar is high but not high enough to be
considered diabetic but if not treated and watched properly can develop into
diabetes. Ways to keep prediabetes from turning into diabetes is losing weight,
doing more physical activities and trying to eat healthier foods such as watching
your sugar and fat intake. Diet and exercise and probably the most important
during this stage sometimes doctors will recommend trying to lose a certain
about of weight to lower your changes and put less strain on your body to keep it
from going into the next stage. If you do all those things and make sure to make
it a life style change and not something that is only done for a little while, there
are good odds that it will not turn into diabetes but you have to make sure you
stay very consistent with it because slip ups can push you into having diabetes.
Type one diabetes is also called juvenile diabetes meaning it is for children. This
happens when your pancreas doesn’t make insulin, insulin makes sure there
isn’t too much glucose in your blood. Those symptoms include hunger, fatigue,
frequent urination increased thirst and blurred vision. When they believe you
have juvenile diabetes they must do a blood test to determine if you have it or
not. This is a life long illness that must be treated and watched with great care.
To treat type one diabetes, you must start taking doses of insulin. Insulin must
be given in the form of a shot. There are different types of insulin rapid acting
meaning in works very quickly, short acting which is the regular type that most
people use, intermediate acting and long acting meaning it works slower and for
a longer period of time. These different types of insulin can be used together in
different combinations to have all the time blood sugar control. There is an
intensive insulin plan meaning you would take three or more shots a day or use a
pump to control the amount of insulin with this you have to check your blood
sugar frequently to make sure levels stay constant or if you need to change the
