What is diabetes?

When we eat or drink, our body breaks that food or drink down into small units of sugar. That sugar then goes into our blood. When our body detects that rise in blood sugar, it releases a hormone called ‘insulin’ from an organ called the ‘pancreas’. Insulin’s job is to move the blood sugar into our body stores and our organs (e.g.
liver). When the body either lacks insulin (e.g. because the pancreas is not working) or the organs are unable
to respond to the insulin, we become sick and have a medical condition called ‘diabetes’.

• Type 1 diabetes = lack of insulin
• Type 2 diabetes = lack of organ response to insulin

Diabetes happens because either the pancreas is sick and is not able to produce insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or because all the organs ‘insulin detection systems’ are sick and they cannot respond to insulin (Type 2 diabetes). Either way, the net result is the same: high levels of blood sugar which damage the body.