Nov. 7 – What Is Diabetes?

GOOD MORNING DELMARVA - I cannot tell you how very few patient I work with can actually. explain what diabetes is. They can tell me what the results of having. diabetes may be, but few can actually put it all together. I think I can simplify an explanation in 2 minutes with a visual show and tell that should do the trick. Basically I explain, the body is a machine and needs fuel. The fuel for the body is sugar or glucose. We get this fuel from foods we eat (carbohydrates). When the body does not use this fuel properly, too much of it builds up in the blood and that's called high blood sugar or diabetes and it's dangerous because high blood sugar “corrodes” the lining of the arteries that carry our blood around our body and that causes all kinds of problems ( think of rusting pipes).