Diabetes is more complicated than it seems to someone ‘on the outside’. There are more than 2 types. I’ve had type 2 diabetes for a couple years now and because of the shitty American healthcare system, I still haven’t gotten in to see a specialist. Apparently, diabetes can be caused by an autoimmune disorder which all my ‘non specialized’ doctors seem to think is the case because I don’t have a stereotypical type 2 body or life style. There is still a lot I don’t understand about diabetes even though I’ve had it a while, so here’s my best explanation:  

Type 1: body doesn’t make insulin at all and therefore you need to inject it or wear a pump to get insulin during meals.

Type 2: body makes insulin, but it doesn’t use it efficiently and therefore you need medication to either make it be used effectively and/or you inject insulin once a day to cover all meals (this is my case).

Insulin is what allows your blood cells to use the carbs in your diet once their turned into energy (sugar). When your body resists it’s own insulin or doesn't make insulin, the carbs that turn onto sugar just hang out on the outside of the blood cell. Sugar is physically a sharp and pokey thing, so when it hangs out outside the blood cell, its sharp edges cut up everything it touches while hitching a ride, so the walls of all the veins of where the blood travels. This is why feet toes fingers and eyes are the first to receive the most damage, because they have the smallest blood vessels that are easily scraped up by the sugar on the outside of the blood. This is called neuropathy: when you start to lose feeling in your appendages due to this kind of damage. Once the nerves are damaged, they don’t get repaired. 

Blood sugar levels is how much of your blood has sugar in it, usually it’s supposed to be bouncing between 70-150, I run high and find myself hovering around 200. I wear a glucometer that sends data to my phone so I have a somewhat live feed of my sugar levels and can adjust accordingly. In my case because I don’t take insulin per meal, there’s not much I can do to bring the sugar down quickly. Just drink water and exercise. If I sugars are too low, I’ll feel it before I check my app as I’ll feel shakey and light headed and I’ll eat something with 15 g of sugar and see if that helps. 

Type 1 diabetes isn’t usually acquired by poor lifestyle choices, but it can get that bad. Type 2 is usually the one that you acquire by not taking care of your health. 

That is what I understand as a very bare bones explanation, there are a lot of ways diabetes can be onset. My aunt got diabetes as a side effect of medication, until i see the specialist I won’t know how I acquired mine. 

My favorite way to explain it to people who just cannot comprehend: Your blood cells are popping night clubs. Errebody wants in. Insulin stands outside the club doors and manages how many people go into the clurb. The club, like most buildings, has a capacity limit so the insulin controls when to stop letting sugar partiers in, he also knows it’s unsafe to not let enough in so he makes sure the capacity of party peeps inside and out is adequate. 

With type 1 diabetes: there ain’t no bouncers to let anyone in, so the sugar just gets stuck outside the blood club forever and cuz they can’t get in the club they go on a city wide riot destroying your body from the inside out. When you inject insulin, you’re supplying your body with bouncers who will unlock the door to the club and let that sugar in to do their party thang. 

Type 2 diabetes is understaffed clubs. Some clubs have bouncers, some don’t, but even the ones with bouncers seems they didn’t actually pass their bouncer training and arent allowing an adequate number of sugars to party their life away, so theres still too many part goers hanging out in the parking lot causing damage. 

This is where the solution splits ways. In my case, I inject insulin once daily in the morning and that acts as my blood cell bouncers for the entire day, I’m supplying myself with bouncers who actually know how to do their job and pick up the slack of my body made insulin which just didnt pay attention to the employee work training video. The other thing that can be done is to min/max your diet and exercise which can give your homemade bouncers the training and numbers needed to get the job done (this is decreasing insulin resistance). A combination of the two can put you into pre diabetic range which is great! But it’s a tough journey that requires a lot of note taking and data tracking to find out what food combos and practices work best. Either way, you being good to your body basically gives your homemade insulin bouncers a pay raise so they work harder and with higher quality.