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Diabetes Week

We are raising awareness for Diabetes Week, 11-17 June 2018

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a serious, lifelong condition where your blood glucose level is too high. There are two main types,Type 1andType 2. They’re different conditions, but they’re both serious

What causes diabetes?

What all types of diabetes have in common is that they cause people to have too much glucose (sugar) in their blood. But we all need some glucose. It’s what gives us our energy. We get glucose when our bodies break down the carbohydrates that we eat or drink. And that glucose is released into our blood.

We also need a hormone called insulin. It’s made by our pancreas, and it’s insulin that allows the glucose in our blood to enter our cells and fuel our bodies.

If you don’t have diabetes, your pancreas senses when glucose has entered your bloodstream and releases the right amount of insulin, so the glucose can get into your cells. But if you have diabetes, this system doesn’t work.

Life with diabetes

Being diagnosed with diabetes, or knowing someone who is diagnosed with the condition, may throw up many questions about how it fits into your daily life, from how it makes you feel, to managing diabetes at work, or while you are driving.

Here we've got information to help you manage all of this, starting with how to talk about diabetes and some tips on having those conversations.

Talking about diabetes

Talking about diabetes can be tricky, awkward, difficult, funny, and everything in between. From telling someone you’ve just met about your diabetes, to trying to explain carb counting to relatives, or avoiding that conversation with your doctor – we want to make it easier for you to have those conversations.

Conversation tips

We've written some top tips to help you get started:

Share your own tips on talking about diabetes and join the conversation for this year's Diabetes Week.

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