| Most of
the food we eat is turned into glucose (sugar) for our body to use
for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes
a hormone called insulin to help glucose enter the cells of our
bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either does not produce
enough insulin, or cannot use the insulin it does produce as well as
it should. This causes glucose to build up in your blood.
Left untreated, diabetes can cause
serious complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney
failure, loss of feeling to the hands and feet and lower extremity
amputations. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the
United States.
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