What is Diabetes?

What is Diabetes? 

Every time we visit the supermarket, we notice most food items will come with a less-sugar or sugar-less version of it. Even when we go to our favourite mamak we would probably order a teh tarik kurang manis. 

Drinks like teh tarik kurang manis, Pepsi Black, Coke Zero, even other food items such as Baked Beans now has a light, less-sugar version. But what does all this mean? 

This means that there is a conscious global effort to reduce personal sugar intake and avoid getting one of the biggest non-communicable chronic disease in the world – Diabetes. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes Diabetes as a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. 

Basically, most of the food you eat is broken down into sugar (also called glucose) and released into your bloodstream. When your blood sugar goes up, it signals your pancreas to release insulin. Insulin acts like a key to let the blood sugar into your body’s cells for use as energy. 

If you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use the insulin it makes as well as it should. When there isn’t enough insulin or cells stop responding to insulin, too much blood sugar stays in your bloodstream. Over time, that can cause serious health problems, such as heart attack, stroke, blindness, and kidney dialysis.  

Unfortunately, there isn’t a cure yet for diabetes, but losing weight, eating healthy food, and being active can really help. Taking medicine as needed, getting diabetes self-management education and support, and keeping health care appointments can also reduce the impact of diabetes on your life. 

Those suffering from diabetes will understand that constant monitoring of the blood/sugar level is important but a tedious job with countless journal entries and visits to the doctor. 

Fortunately, the G-Mate glucometer does away with conventional journals with the use of a smartphone app. The app records and calculates your levels with specific indicators to show if where you are in the high-end or the low-end of the controlled or un-controlled zone. Being a smartphone app also allows for various methods of sharing the information with your loved ones, caregivers and doctors. 

Of course, there are many other benefits to using the G-Mate glucometer. Kindly contact us for more information about the GMate glucometer. We’ll be glad to assist you.