What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a lifelong condition where the amount of glucose in your blood is too high due to your pancreas either not producing any insulin, or not enough insulin, to help glucose enter your body’s cells – or the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance).
Type 1
Your immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys the beta cells in your pancreas that produce insulin.
Type 2
Develops when your body can’t produce enough insulin or when the insulin produced doesn’t work properly.
What is Insulin?
Insulin is a hormone that allows the cells in your body to take up and use blood glucose (sugar). The glucose comes from the food that you eat. In a person without diabetes, insulin is released when needed (for example, after a meal), which allows the tissues of the body to take up the right amount of glucose.
Learn moreGestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes can occur at any stage of pregnancy, but is more common in the second half. It occurs when your body can't produce enough extra insulin to meet the demands of pregnancy. Gestational diabetes should go away after you've given birth.
Learn moreWhat makes your glucose rise and fall?
When you have diabetes it is important to understand what might make your blood glucose level rise or fall so that you can take steps to stay on target.
Learn moreKetones and knowing when you are at risk
Ketones are a chemical produced by your body when, due to a lack of insulin, it is not able to use glucose as its source of energy, and instead start breaking down fat.
Learn moreWhat happens if you don’t treat your diabetes
Diabetes can increase your risk of many serious health problems most of which are entirely preventable if you keep your blood glucose in a healthy range.
Learn more
FreeStyle Libre
Flash Glucose Monitoring System
Why prick when you
can scan?1
The days of routine glucose
testing with lancets, test strips and blood are over.2
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