**Quick Information on Diabetes

http://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes-photos/need-to-know-facts-about-type-2-diabetes.aspx?pos=1&xid=nl_EverydayHealthManagingDiabetes_20140506#/slide-1

This link offers some quick information on diabetes, what it is, how to avoid it, and how to control it.  If someone is pre-diabetic, or recently diagnosed with diabetes, this is a good place to get some basic information.  Eight percent of us have diabetes, and twice that many more are pre-diabetic.  More and more diabetes affects us all.  Diabetes is when are bodies have difficulty controlling sugar levels.  This can be because we are not producing enough insulin, or because our bodies have difficulty using the insulin to process sugar.  This process helps our bodies take sugar into our cells to use it as energy.
Risk factors for diabetes include a sedentary lifestyle, overweight, using tobacco, genetics, family history and ethnicity (African American and Native American have high diabetes rates.)
Poorly controlled diabetes can lead to other complications; hearing loss, vision loss, neuropathy, heart disease, high blood pressure, amputation and kidney damage.
Diabetes is an illness which cannot be cured, but it can be controlled.  People can control their sugar levels with diet and exercise.  Others need medications, and still others require insulin.