I’m a nurse. This is an easy explanation I give to my patients.

Insulin lowers blood sugar. Carbs like sugars (bad carbs) increase blood sugar quickly, then fall quickly. Makes you want to eat more. Carbs like starches (good carbs) increase blood sugar, but keep at a steady range. Keeps you from eating more.

Once you abuse sugars/carbs too much over time, insulin stops being able to work. So then your blood sugars go back up, causing Diabetes type 2.

In type 2 diabetes, your liver is producing an overload of sugar and your pancreas insulin cannot lower it anymore since it’s been abused so much.

Type 1 occurs when you are young and your pancreas stops producing insulin.

This is why diet and exercise are super important to stop Diabetes type 2. So that your body can resist the sugar/carbs. Smoking can cause damage to the walls of arteries and veins. This puts you at risk for a whole slue of Heart and Blood pressure issues. The high blood sugar also does damage to these, including you nerves. This can make you permanently lose feeling in feet and legs. Can also cause permanent nerve pain. This leads to diabetic wounds that heal very, very slowly.

Basically, having diabetes sucks.