What is Diabetes?
Your body needs to convert the food you eat into energy. Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects this process. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose (sugar) and released into the bloodstream for the body to use as energy. When you have diabetes, your pancreas doesn’t release enough insulin, or the insulin is not used efficiently, which allows too much blood sugar to stay in your bloodstream. This could eventually cause serious health problems such as heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease.
Types of Diabetes
Prediabetes
By the Numbers
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20%
1 in 5 people with diabetes don’t know they have it.
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7th
Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S.
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#1
Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure, lower limb amputations and adult blindness.
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1.5 M
1.5 million people are diagnosed with diabetes every year.