Knowledge Guides

Glucose, also known as blood sugar, is the body's main source of fuel. We get most of it from foods and drinks that contain carbohydrates. When we eat, the digestive system and liver break these foods down and release glucose into the bloodstream, where it becomes available for our cells to take up and use for energy.

Diabetes is what happens when there's too much glucose — sugar — circulating in your blood. That glucose comes from the food you eat, and it's meant to be your body's main fuel.

You may have heard the term metabolic syndrome without ever being told quite what it means. It isn't a single illness. It's a name for a cluster of conditions that tend to show up together — and when they do, they raise the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Here's something that surprises a lot of people: there's no single, standard test for insulin resistance. Pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes are diagnosed from blood glucose levels, but insulin resistance is trickier. It tends to develop quietly, often staying hidden until it has already progressed into pre-diabetes or diabetes. By the time blood sugar starts to climb, the process has usually been underway for a while — which is exactly why catching it earlier is so valuable, and so difficult.