What is diabetes?
People who cannot naturally control their blood sugar levels are called DIABETIC.
They must control their blood sugar manually by controlling their diet, and by injecting themselves regularly with insulin.
People who have type 1 diabetes have pancreatic cells that do not produce insulin because the cells have been destroyed by the immune system.
Type 2 diabetes
This is caused by either insulin-releasing cells not producing enough insulin, or by target organs not responding to the hormones.
There are multiple factors that can lead to Type 2 diabetes including genetics and lifestyle choices.
Type 2 diabetes can usually be controlled using diet and exercise. If these don’t work medication can be used.
BMI
BMI stands for Body Mass Index. BMI takes into account peoples masses and height. Taller people will have a larger mass compared with shorter people. The number calculated fits into one of the categories below.
However BMI does not take into account muscle tone or build.
A rugby player or boxer may have lots of muscle this means that their BMI may be high even though they are not obese
Example
Remember that the height needs to be squared before dividing into the weight. E.g. 1.75 (m) x 1.75 (m) = 3.06
70 (kg) ÷ 3.06 = 22.87
Category = Normal
Diabetes and BMI
Many countries are showing a rapid increase in the number of people with type 2 diabetes. The average body mass has also increased in the UK..There is a correlation between the BMI category and diabetes.
The higher your BMI the greater chance you have of developing type 2 diabetes.
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