What is Diabetes?

Your body needs to convert the food you eat into energy. Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects this process. Most of the food we eat is broken down into sugar (glucose) and released into your bloodstream for the body to use as energy. When you have diabetes, not enough insulin is released from your pancreas, or the insulin is not used efficiently, allowing too much blood sugar to stay in your bloodstream. This could eventually cause serious health problems such as heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease.