Center for Diabetes
The Center for Diabetes at Ellis Medicine helps individuals with diabetes
improve their quality of life by providing education to patients and their
families.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic disease that develops when the body doesn't make enough
insulin, or doesn't use insulin properly. Insulin helps glucose, a form of sugar
manufactured by the body from food, enter cells and make the energy the body
needs. A person with diabetes must control the amount of glucose in the blood to
avoid medical complications, such as loss of vision, heart attack, amputation or
kidney disease.
Awareness & Symptoms
An estimated 24 million Americans have diabetes; however, approximately 6
million of these people don't even know it. In addition, it is estimated that 57
million Americans have "pre-diabetes" and most will develop diabetes within 10
years. The Center for Diabetes at Ellis Medicine strives to increase awareness
of the symptoms of diabetes because too often they are overlooked.
Since early detection and treatment of diabetes are the keys to reducing your
chances of developing serious medical complications, it's important to know the
following symptoms of diabetes:
- Frequent urination
- Excessive thirst
- Extreme hunger
- Unusual weight loss
- Increased fatigue
- Irritability
- Blurry vision
If you have one or more of these symptoms, the American Diabetes Association
recommends that you make an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.
How can we help?
The first step in prevention and treatment of diabetes is education. What you
don't know about diabetes can hurt you. The Center for Diabetes offers many
programs and services for people with diabetes and for those people at risk for
diabetes. The center is staffed by Certified Diabetes Educators that will work
with you on an individual basis to develop a self-management plan designed to
meet your needs.