Diabetes Specialist
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Personal Touch Medical Center
Family Physician located in Fairburn, GA
If you live in Fairburn, Georgia, and have diabetes, Latasha Burgess, MD, and the team at Personal Touch Medical Center offer treatment to help you manage your condition and lead an active and healthy life, reducing your risk of related health complications. From medication to lifestyle modifications, Dr. Burgess enables you to regain control over your health and feel great. Call the office or book an appointment online today.
Diabetes Q & A
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a health condition that affects the way your body either produces or uses insulin. Insulin is the hormone produced by your body that transfers glucose into energy or stores it for future use.
If you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or doesn’t process insulin correctly, leaving you with higher than average glucose levels. There are three main types of diabetes:
Type 1
If you have type 1 diabetes, your body produces insufficient levels of insulin. It’s often diagnosed in children and adolescents. Type 1 diabetes only affects about 5% of people with diabetes. This form of the disease has a strong link to genetics.
Type 2
Type 2 diabetes is typically diagnosed later in life and has strong links to your lifestyle behaviors. This form of the disease is characterized by your body’s inability to process insulin correctly to control your glucose levels.
Gestational diabetes
This form of diabetes affects pregnant women and typically disappears after delivery. Pregnancy can cause insulin resistance in some women.
Which health risks are associated with diabetes?
The high glucose levels associated with diabetes are dangerous. In the right quantities, glucose provides the energy your body needs to function. But when there’s too much of it, it acts like a poison.
High glucose levels not only damage your pancreas, the organ that makes insulin but also causes hardening of your arteries. It can also hurt just about any organ in your body, leading to issues like blindness, nerve damage, and circulation problems that could cause necrosis (tissue death) and amputation.
How is diabetes treated?
Your provider helps you to manage your diabetes with a combination of medication and lifestyle modifications.
Maintaining a healthy body weight can improve your body’s ability to use insulin correctly. Eating a healthy diet with reduced sugars helps to control your glucose levels. Similarly, regular exercise, even something as simple as taking a 20-minute walk after a meal, can help your body to process glucose correctly.
If you’re experiencing diabetes-related health complications, the team at Personal Touch Medical Center manages care for multiple conditions. Ultimately, they want to help you live a healthy, active, and fulfilling life. Schedule an appointment at Personal Touch Medical Center by calling the office or booking online today.
