November 14 is World Diabetes Day. Diabetes is more common than you think. More than a million Dutch people have diabetes. Some of them don't know themselves.
Every year on November 14 it is World Diabetes Day. More than 1 million people in the Netherlands have diabetes. 80 percent of them know this. The rest have diabetes, without even knowing it. Diabetes is one of the biggest health and healthcare problems of the 21st century. Currently, 1 in 11 adults worldwide has diabetes, usually type 2 diabetes. If we do nothing, it is expected that by 2045 1 in 9 adults worldwide will have diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. That means that the immune system attacks the body. Normally, the immune system only clears up diseases. But in some people, the immune system destroys the cells that make insulin in the pancreas. Then you have type 1 diabetes. You cannot live without the substance insulin, because it regulates your blood sugar.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes, but young people can get it too. This form of diabetes is the most common:1.1 million people in the Netherlands have type 2 diabetes. There are various ways to treat type 2 diabetes.
In type 2 diabetes, the body no longer responds well to insulin. That is the hormone that regulates blood sugar. The insulin is invisible, as it were, and cannot do its job. As a result, too much sugar remains in your blood. First, the body makes extra insulin, but less and less over time.
We know that this increases the risk of type 2 diabetes:
It is therefore important to draw attention to diabetes. In addition, when you think of diabetes, you may not immediately think of the worst. But diabetes is an incurable disease that, if not treated properly, can lead to serious complications and can even be fatal.
Growth
The number of people with diabetes is growing faster than ever expected. Type 2 diabetes can be caused by being overweight. Because more and more young people are overweight, more and more young people are also getting diabetes.
How do you recognize diabetes?
You can recognize diabetes by having to urinate a lot, very thirsty, fatigue, a dry tongue and a lot of itching. Your body also gets too little energy, which you can see in fatigue or you can become skinny, while you eat enough.
To the doctor
Do your body's symptoms indicate you have diabetes? Always visit your doctor to have your blood tested.
Source:Changing diabetes/ Diabetes fund, image:Getty Images
