Diabetes > Cardiometabolic Disease > Pathologies

Diabetes and your health

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When a person has diabetes, their body does not produce a sufficient amount of insulin or cannot properly use the insulin produced, so glucose remains in the bloodstream and this can cause serious health problems.

The main sugar in the body is called glucose. Most of the food that you normally eat is converted to glucose, which is released into the blood. Glucose is transported to the cells of the body to carry energy, this process is done by means of a hormone called insulin that is secreted by the pancreas.1


When a person has diabetes, their body does not produce a sufficient amount of insulin or cannot properly use the insulin produced, so glucose remains in the bloodstream and this can cause serious health problems.1


This is a chronic disease that currently cannot be cured, but it is completely treatable and diabetics can live a long life.

Types of diabetes

TYPES 1
This type of diabetes is characterized by the fact that the body does not produce insulin, so insulin therapy is the essential treatment. Approximately 5% of diabetics suffer from this type of diabetes. It can occur at any age and in any race.2

TYPES 2
It is considered the most common type of diabetes worldwide. On this occasion, insulin resistance is created since the body does not use it properly, so a high amount of glucose accumulates in the blood, also called hyperglycemia.2
At the beginning of the disease, the pancreas is in charge of secreting extra amounts of insulin to compensate the body, with the passage of time the amount of insulin secreted is less and less, being insufficient for the body’s requirements and maintaining it in its normal state.3

TYPES 3 Prediabetes is a condition where your glucose levels are higher than normal but have not yet reached levels high enough to indicate that you are already diabetic.3 If you have prediabetes, there is still time to reverse that diagnosis before you it develops into diabetes.3 You can be prediabetic for several years and not know it because there may be no clear symptoms that alert you to make lifestyle changes. It is important that you consider seeing your doctor to have your blood glucose levels checked if you have any of the risk factors3 considered prediabetes:
If any of both parents or siblings have diabetes type 2
If any of both parents or siblings have diabetes type 2
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
If any of the pregnancies, you had Gestational diabetes
If any of the pregnancies, you had Gestational diabetes
Overweight
Overweight
Does not practice physical activity
Does not practice physical activity
45 years old or older
45 years old or older

CC-10758 / OCT 2025

1. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2017, diciembre 26). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/spanish/basics/diabetes.html

2. Punthakee, Z., Goldenberg, R., & Katz, P. (2018). Definition, Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes, Prediabetes and Metabolic Syndrome. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 42, S10-S1.

3. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2019, febrero 1). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/spanish/basics/prediabetes.html

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