What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that has to do with the body’s production of insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas. Insulin enables the body to pick sugar out of the bloodstream and to get it inside the cells where it is used for energy or is stored. However, if the body does not produce enough insulin, little of the sugar will get to the cells to produce energy or be stored. Instead, sugar builds to high levels in the blood and begins to cause problems. Simply put, that is diabetes.

The term “diabetes mellitus” comes from a Greek word meaning “to siphon” and a Latin word meaning “sweet like honey.” These words aptly describe the disorder, for water passes through the person who has diabetes as if it were being siphoned from the mouth through the urinary tract and right out of the body. Furthermore, the urine is sweet with sugar. In fact, prior to the discovery of more efficient techniques, one test for diabetes was to pour a patient’s urine near an anthill. If the insects were attracted, this indicated the presence of sugar.

There are two main types of diabetes:

TYPE 1 DIABETES: Also known as Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus. The problem here lies in the inability of the pancreas to make insulin. Recent evidence indicates that this type of diabetes may be caused, at least sometimes, by viral infections. The person with this type usually contracts it at a young age (under 30), is usually thin, and needs insulin shots to live.

TYPE 2 DIABETES: Also known as Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus. It is often referred to as adult onset diabetes and is different from Type I. Here the problem is not that the pancreas makes no insulin but that it does not make enough. Much of the insulin it makes is soaked up by fat cells. The pancreas cannot make enough insulin to cope, and the blood sugar goes up. People with this type of diabetes are usually over 30, are overweight, and can sometimes get along without insulin shots. They also seem more likely to inherit their diabetes.