• Diabetes develops when your pancreas can’t produce enough of the hormone insulin or your body becomes resistant to it.
• Common diabetic conditions include type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and pre-diabetes.
• You can manage diabetes by taking medicines to manage your blood glucose levels, adopting a healthy diet and being physically active.

Types of diabetes

Type 1 diabetes -

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune condition: your body’s immune system attacks the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. The exact cause of this reaction is still unknown, but diet and lifestyle are not factors that determine who gets type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes develops gradually over years as your body’s insulin becomes less effective at managing your blood glucose levels. As a result, your pancreas produces more and more insulin, and eventually the insulin producing cells wear out and become ineffective. Type 2 diabetes is a combination of low insulin and ineffective insulin.

Gestational diabetes

Most women with gestational diabetes don’t have any symptoms. The condition is often detected during a routine blood sugar test or oral glucose tolerance test that is usually performed between the 24th and 28th weeks of gestation.

Prediabetes

Prediabetes occurs when your blood sugar is higher than normal, but it’s not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Symptoms of diabetes include:

• Increased hunger
• Increased thirst
• Weight loss
• Frequent urination
• Blurry vision
• Extreme fatigue
• Sores that don’t heal