I've been working on the second installment of #MyBodyDoesWhat series which will be a new infographic on Pancreas (Previous ScienceSoSexy infographics)! Little did I know that beginning of June was Diabetes week. How timely am I? - Well, I'm 2 weeks too late, but it could be worse, right?! (If you don't know what Pancreas and Diabetes have in common, keep reading ;)
8th - 14th June was the week chosen to raise awareness to this common life-long health condition. This year, using the different social media platforms, the word was #ican! An initiative to show help and support to anyone with diabetes by gathering examples of things that this condition will never let you stop from doing. Check out their live story stream over HERE.
3.2 million people are diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 630,000 people have the condition, but don’t know it. In the world, the diabetic population stands at 365 million people, representing around 8.5% of the global population.
Diabetes is when our body either doesn't make enough insulin (produced by our pancreas) or cannot use its own insulin properly to help get the sugar (coming from food or our liver) to move from our blood into the cells of our body, causing build up of that sugar in our bloodstream.
 |
| The Insulin binds to its Receptor and makes the Glucose transporter move to the cell surface where it can open up a passage to let the Glucose come inside the cell. If there's no insulin or the receptor doesn't recognize or respond to it, the Glucose is stuck in the blood and accumulates = Diabetes |
Type 1 is when the body doesn't produce insulin. It requires insulin to treat, is typically developed as a child or young adult, and is a disease that destroys pancreatic cells meaning no insulin production is possible.
Type 2 is when the body doesn't produce enough insulin or the insulin produced is not working properly. It is considerably more common and typically affects people over the age of 45, who are also overweight.
If you have followed my first #MyBodyDoesWhat infographic, you know that I'm going to use this series to explore what our body does because seriously it is freakishly genius. I think I should know more about it so I thought I would share with my Sexy Readers whatever info I gather! My second installment on Pancreas is basically "in the making" stage.
In the meantime, if you would like to share your own experience with fellow readers, feel free to hit the comments box, so
See you Soon for more Sexy Science,
Further reading
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/
My step-father has type 2 but thankfully it doesn't really effect him. Thanks for explaining the differences between the two types.
ReplyDeleteFiona @ www.dollydowsie,com
I know a few people with diabetes and thankfully they all seem to manage it all ok - I haven't really ever got my head around what it was so thank you
ReplyDeletegreat post it is so important to raise awareness for diabetes. I think so many people are unaware of the damage it can do to a person. My dad has it pretty bad and is now blind in one eye and going blind in the other, his legs swell and it takes a long time to heal so it is important to catch this and get medication xx
ReplyDeleteThank you Fiona for your comment. This is a super short blog post on it but I am planning on writing a little bit more soon
ReplyDeleteThank you Sarah for dropping by. I'm planning a future blog post giving more info so stay tuned, I'll post it in the UK group
ReplyDeleteThank you Kitty for commenting. I think you are totally right, we don't know the damage it can do until it's too late so awareness is key. Thank you for sharing your (dad's) experience.
ReplyDelete