Do you ?

  • feel the urge to urinate frequently especially at night?
  • feel tired and thirsty all the time?
  • besides above, losing weight despite eating normally

Perhaps it’s time you need to check your blood glucose level as these are the typical symptoms of diabetes.

So what is diabetes - it is a condition which develops when our pancreas is not functioning properly and /or the glucose breakdown (metabolism) is not effectively carried out by different cells in our body.

Let’s understand a bit more:

  • The pancreas is an organ situated just behind your stomach. Its function is to produce insulin a substance that helps to control the sugar level in your blood. When we eat, the body changes food into a simple sugar called glucose . As glucose enters the blood stream, the blood sugar level goes up. The pancreas then secretes insulin which opens the cells to receive the glucose. The cells need glucose to function. Once glucose enters the cells, the glucose level in the blood returns to normal.
  • so in diabetes two things might happen - either the pancreas is not making enough insulin or the cells do not respond to the insulin properly.
  • this causes the sugar to remain in the blood.
  • when the blood sugar level remains high, it causes us to feel the abovesaid symptoms.

Interestingly, not everyone feels the abovesaid symptoms, even though the blood sugar level is high. For precaution purposes, once we are above 40 years old of age, it is important to get a routine blood test done to rule our diabetes.