Diabetes is a condition which affects many bears, chubs and cubs and can mean having to restrict your diet, take pills everyday or even give yourself regular injections. As we develop this page we're going to look at Diabetes, how you might reduce your chances of developing type II diabetes, and where you can get support and advice if you've got diabetes.
So lets start with what is Diabetes?
Diabetes Mellitus is a condition where the body can't handle sugar properly because of problems with a substance called Insulin which is produced by the pancreas. The result is that if it's not controlled properly you end up with either too much or too little sugar which can cause lots of problems, some acute like passing out and falling into a coma, other more long term like loosing sensation in your fingers and toes and having a higher risk of a heart attack.
There are two types of Diabetes:
Type I Diabetes - Also known as Insulin Dependant Diabetes
This is the kind of diabetes where the body can't produce Insulin and normally happens in people under 40yrs old and is managed using injections of artifical insulin.
Type II Diabetes - Also known as Non-Insulin Dependant Diabetes
This kind of diabetes happens when for some reason the body etiher stops responding to Insulin or stops making enough Insulin to handle the sugar in your diet. Type II Diabetes can occur at any time and is often happens to fat people, so is quite common among big gay guys. This type of diabetes is normally controlled through changing the food you eat, increasing exercise and sometimes with tablets.
So what else can we say about Diabetes. Once you have diabetes it doesn't get better, although it can be managed and controlled through drugs, diet or injections. Loosing weight may help get better control of diabetes and reduce long term effects on eye sight, nerves and kidneys.
Diabetes cannot be caught and isn't caused by eating too much chocolate!
If you have got Diabetes or want to know more then it is worth going to one of the excellent Diabetes websites for information and support:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/queerdiabetes/
http://users.telerama.com/~moose/fa-diab.html