Diabetes

A metabolic disease that causes high blood sugar. This happens when one's body does not generate sufficient insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin made.

Symptoms

• Increased thirst and urination

• Increased hunger

• Fatigue

• Blurred vision

• Numbness or tingling in the feet or hands

• Sores that do not heal

• Unexplained weight loss

  
  

What Does This Mean?

Type 1 Diabetes

If you have type 1 diabetes, your pancreas makes very little or no insulin. Insulin is a hormone that allows blood sugar or glucose to enter the cells in your body and be used as energy. It is not caused by diet and lifestyle habits. Type 1 diabetes usually emerges at a young age.

Type 2 Diabetes

If you have type 2 diabetes, your body does not produce or use insulin efficiently. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance, which can be caused by excess weight. Excessive belly fat is linked to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

Risk Factors

Family history: Type 1 diabetes can be caused by genetic influences Occasionally, it is exacerbated by environmental influences, such as being diagnosed with a virus

Type 2 Diabetes

• Have pre-diabetes

• Overweight or obese (body mass

• index ≥ 23.0kg/m2 and ≥ 25.0kg/m2 respectively)

• Sedentary lifestyle: physically active less than 3 times a week

• Have ever had gestational diabetes or given birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds

• Increasingly prevalent in Singaporeans due to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets, such as high sugar intake

  
  

Gestational Diabetes

• Gestational diabetes develops in some women when they are pregnant, due to hormonal and lifestyle changes

• Hormones produced by the placenta can contribute to insulin resistance

• Some pregnant women are unable to produce enough insulin to overcome the insulin resistance and hence develop gestational diabetes

• Most of the time, this type of diabetes goes away after delivery, but increases risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Sometimes diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy is actually type 2 diabetes

  
  

Management/Prevention

Before getting pregnant, gestational diabetes can be prevented by losing weight if you are overweight, following healthy diets, and engaging in regular physical activity

Risk factors

• Had gestational diabetes during a previous pregnancy

• Have given birth to a baby who weighed > 9 pounds

• Are overweight. Women who are overweight or obese prior to pregnancy may already have insulin resistance which worsens when they become pregnant. Gaining too much weight during pregnancy may also cause diabetes

• Are more than 25 years old

• Have a family history of type 2 diabetes

• Have a hormonal disorder called polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

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Written by: Goh Ting Wei | Designed by: Tan Khai Teng | Edited by: Jonathan Kuek