Sugar (glucose) gives your body energy. The sugar (glucose) moves from your blood into your muscles with something called insulin. With diabetes your insulin isn’t working properly, so the sugar (glucose) doesn’t get into your muscles and body easily and there is too much sugar (glucose) in your blood.
Everyone has a little bit of sugar (glucose) in their blood. The normal sugar (glucose) level is between 4 to 6 mmol/L (after fasting).
Sugar (glucose) is fuel that comes from some of the food you eat and drink. It gives your body energy to do all sorts of things:
- Walk
- Think
- Play sports
- Hunt
- Work
- Rake
- Gardening
- Resting.
To help the sugar (glucose) move into your muscles and body cells your body needs something called insulin. Insulin is made in the pancreas - a body part which is near your stomach.
Insulin helps keep your sugar (glucose) levels normal.
With diabetes, the insulin isn’t helping the sugar (glucose) move from your body into your muscles and body cells. So it stays and builds in your body, making your blood sugar (glucose) level high.
Type 2 Diabetes
There are two different types of diabetes. A lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have type 2 diabetes. Type 2 is when your body stops the insulin working properly.
Fat bellies, not being active enough, eating a big mob of fatty food can stop the insulin working properly in your body.
Being active, eating healthy and being a healthy weight can help your insulin work better to keep your sugar (glucose) normal. Sometimes people might need to take tablets and insulin everyday to keep their sugar (glucose) levels normal.
Gestational Diabetes
Another type of diabetes is gestational diabetes. This happens when you are pregnant, but not all women get it. It goes away after pregnancy but you and your baby can get type 2 diabetes later in life.
Pre Diabetes
There is also Pre Diabetes or Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT). This happens when your sugar (glucose) level is high, but not high enough to be called diabetes. It doesn’t mean you have diabetes now, but it does mean you might get it later. Being active and eating healthy you can slow down the start of type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes
Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have type 1 diabetes. This usually happens in kids and teenagers. Type 1 diabetes is when your body kills the insulin making part in the pancreas and no insulin is made in your body. To give the body the insulin it needs, insulin injections are needed every day for the rest of their life.
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