In order to understand what is the cause of diabetes, it’s important to get a few of the basic facts about the disease first.

Diabetes is a non-communicable disease  that affects people of all ages from kids all the way through to seniors. Diabetes is a very serious, not only because of the health risks associated with it, but also that it is affecting more and more people every year, not just in North America, but  across the entire world.

Diabetes is the Lack of, or Inefficiency of Insulin in Your Body

The way that our body becomes energized is by having the food we eat be broken down into glucose so that it can enter into the blood stream and be delivered to the cells that need energy.

For the cells to use this energy they need insulin, produced by the pancreas.  Without the insulin, it’s like the cells are starving for energy because they can’t access the glucose in the bloodstream.

This is really bad, and another way to think about how bad this can be is to think about how you breathe.  Your body needs oxygen to survive, and the lungs are the organs that can change the oxygen in the air into oxygen that is usable for your body.

If you think about the way that lungs convert the oxygen so that it can be used, insulin is doing the same thing with the energy being delivered to the cells.   Without the insulin, the cells starve, just like without our lungs we would not be able to breathe.

Without the proper amounts of this necessary sugar changing chemical/hormone the blood, glucose levels in the blood stream begin to rise to extremely high levels. Once they reach a certain level the body systems begins to suffer cell damage.

Understanding this condition can be complicated. A good start for someone who wants more insight and possibly a need to help can begin by looking into their choices of masters of nursing programs. You can learn at your own pace and gain the experience needed to truly help friends, family and people alike.

The major cell damage most commonly associated with high blood sugar levels are:

• Severe nerve cell damage
• Heart damage
• Kidney damage
• Severe eye damage

This can be avoided if the diabetic can regulate and keep their blood sugar amounts in a normal range for their body that is neither too high or too low.

The next important thing to understand is that there are two different types of diabetes:

• type 1 diabetes
• type 2 diabetes

The Cause of Type 1 Diabetes

Unfortunately, there is nothing that someone can do about type 1 diabetes, at least not with the current medical expertise that we have today.  Type 1 diabetes is caused because your body has ceased to produce insulin.

For one reason or another your body has attacked the pancreas and it is no longer able to function correctly.  This type of diabetes can affect anyone and is not dependent on lifestyle.

Type 1 diabetes usually occurs in people under the age of 40, and rarely affects those over 40, and those affected will need to take insulin to regulate their blood sugar level for the rest of their lives.

The Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

Luckily, type 2 diabetes is preventable and in some cases reversible.  The reason that we can affect this type of diabetes is that it is largely caused by poor diet, and lack of exercise.

Genetics can come into play here, so if someone in your family has developed type 2 diabetes then you may be at a higher risk for developing it yourself, so you should take care to live a healthy lifestyle so that you won’t have to worry about diabetes.

More good news: 85% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes.  What this means is that it is within your power to resist the development of diabetes.

Remember that the main causes of type 2 diabetes are:

• Lack of exercise
• Poor diet
• Excess body fat for a prolonged period of time

The Major Causes of Diabetes

• The amount of insulin being produced by the body is not enough
• The cells have developed a resistance to the insulin and it is not working as effectively as it once did.

The problem with insulin resistance is that what used to work fine for the body, slowly becomes ineffective over time.  With this in mind it’s important to realize that your general health and fitness level is very important, and if you want to avoid problems like diabetes later in life, that you should be making good health choices today.