Talking about diabetes, this week I am going to talk about dealing with diabetes in a your life and how I deal with my diabetes.
 
What is diabeties?
Diabetes is a condition where the amount of glucose in your blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly.
This is because your pancreas doesn’t produce any insulin, or not enough insulin, to help glucose enter your body’s cells – or the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance).
Diabetes develops when glucose can’t enter the body’s cells to be used as fuel. This happens when either:
There is no insulin to unlock the cells (Type 1)
There is not enough insulin or the insulin is there but not
working properly (Type 2).
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/What-is-diabetes/
There is nothing that you can do to prevent Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a little more complex – it’s a combination of our genes and our lifestyle. You can find out your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by taking our online Diabetes Risk Score Test.
You are more at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes if:
You are over 40 (or over 25 if you are South Asian)
You have a close family member with diabetes (parent, brother or sister)
You are overweight, with a large waist size (over 80cm (31.5 inches) for women, 94cm (37 inches) for men, or 89cm (35 inches) for South Asian men)
Being South Asian, Black African, African Caribbean – even if you were born in the UK
You have ever had high blood pressure, a heart attack or a stroke
You're a woman with polycystic ovary syndrome and overweight
If you're a woman and you've had gestational diabetes or given birth to a baby over 10 pounds
If you have a severe mental illness for which you take medication (such as schizophrenia, bipolar illness or depression)
You've been told you have impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glycaemia.
Note: Some of these risks factors are genetic factors and there is little you can do to reduce them, so it’s best to concentrate on those you can change, such as your weight
These things do not cause diabetes:
Viruses or germs – you cannot catch diabetes like a cold
Stress, though it may make the symptoms worse in people who already have the condition
An accident or an illness won’t cause diabetes, but may reveal the condition if it is already there.
Report
There has been an estimated 75% increase in Type 2 diabetes in London over the last decade, according to a report released yesterday by the London Assembly Health Committee.
The report, called ‘Blood Sugar Rush’ – Diabetes Time Bomb in London’, was launched in Trafalgar Square yesterday morning and calls for an integrated approach to diabetes prevention and care in the capital.
London rates higher than in many parts of the country
The report claims that the number of cases of Type 2 diabetes in London is growing faster than anywhere else in the country and makes the following recommendations:
• Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) and Health and Wellbeing Boards to work together, planning for local health priorities and putting patients at the centre of their care.
• Local measures to be implemented to tackle obesity, supported by the Mayor.
• NHS England (London) to identify successful models of integrated care that could be applied to diabetes care. 
• The Strategic Clinical Network for Diabetes to be made a permanent feature of the existing health structures.  
• Clearer targets to be set for supermarkets and manufacturers to reduce the fat, sugar and salt content of foods and drinks
140,000 Londoners with Type 2 who don't know it
Diabetes UK’s Regional Manager for London, Roz Rosenblatt, was involved in shaping the report by contributing to the Assembly’s consultati...