National Diabetes Fact Sheet
Diabetes Definitions
- Blood glucose is the main sugar
found in the blood and the body’s main source of energy. The
A1c blood test is used to measure a person’s average blood sugar
level over the past 2 to 3 months.
- Blood pressure is the force of
blood on the inside walls of blood vessels, measured by analyzing both
the
systolic blood pressure, the
pressure when the heart pushes blood out into the arteries, and the
diastolic blood pressure, when the heart is at rest.
- Blood lipid is a term for fat in the
blood stream, and is measured with a lipid profile blood test. The lipid
profile test measures total
cholesterol, the fat produced by the liver
and found in some foods,
triglycerides, the storage form of fat in the body, HDL cholesterol,
fat that takes extra cholesterol from the blood to the liver for
removal, and LDL cholesterol, fat that takes excess cholesterol
around the body to where it’s needed, but excess ultimately rests on the
inside of artery walls.
- Diabetic ketoacidosis is a
condition in which very high blood sugar levels along with a very low
level of insulin result in a dangerous accumulation of ketones --
substances produced when the body breaks down fat for energy -- in the
blood and urine.
Hyperosmolar nonketotic
syndrome is
another condition in which one’s blood sugar levels become very high and
necessary ketones are not present in the blood or urine. Coma or death
can result if both of these conditions are not treated.
- Insulin is a hormone that is needed to
convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy needed for daily
life.
- Metformin is a medicine pill used to
treat type 2 diabetes because it lowers blood sugar levels by reducing
the amount of sugar produced by the liver and helping the body respond
better to insulin.
- Maturity-onset
diabetes of the young is a kind of type 2 diabetes that accounts
for 1 to 5 percent of people with diabetes and is a result of a defect
in a single gene.
- Non-traumatic
lower-limb amputation is a procedure to remove through surgery
damaged feet or legs, where the injury was not caused by trauma (e.g.,
the injury was not caused by a car accident).
- Diabetic retinopathy is
diabetic eye disease that results from damage to the small blood vessels
in the retina, the back part of the eye that contains the cells that
respond to light. It may lead to loss of eyesight. Laser therapy,
one possible treatment option, uses a strong beam of light to seal the
leaking blood vessels in the eye.
- End-stage renal disease is kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant to survive.
- Glucose intolerance is a condition in which the body has blood sugar levels higher than normal, but not high enough to classify as diabetes. It is diagnosed using an oral glucose tolerance test which requires a fasting period of 8 to 12 hours and the blood sugar is measured both fasting and 2 hours after drinking a high-sugar drink.
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