Diabetes

Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 2.8 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 850,000 people who have the condition but don’t know it.

Diabetes is a condition where the amount of glucose in your blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. This is because your pancreas does not produce any insulin, or not enough, to help glucose enter your body’s cells – or the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance).

Insulin is the hormone produced by the pancreas that allows glucose to enter the body’s cells, where it is used as fuel for energy so we can work, play and generally live our lives. It is vital for life.

Glucose comes from digesting carbohydrate and is also produced by the liver. Carbohydrate comes from many different kinds of foods and drink, including starchy foods such as bread, potatoes and chapatis; fruit; some dairy products; sugar and other sweet foods.

If you have diabetes, your body cannot make proper use of this glucose so it builds up in the blood and isn’t able to be used as fuel.

Diabetes types

There are two main types of diabetes:

* Type 1 diabetes

* Type 2 diabetes

'Explaining diabetes' animation

Being diagnosed with diabetes and living with diabetes can sometimes feel overwhelming – this is quite normal.  In this section of the website you can find out more about how diabetes may affect your emotions and how you feel.

Your emotions

One of the most difficult things to come to terms with is that diabetes is for life.  In the weeks and months after being diagnosed with diabetes emotions are often pushed to one side as you try to get to grips with new treatments and changing your lifestyle.

Everyone reacts differently when they hear the news that they have diabetes.  You may be initially overwhelmed, shocked, afraid, angry and anxious.  Some people go through a stage very similar to mourning – as though they are grieving for lost...