If Diabetes is noninfectousis it a genetic disease or is it caused by the environment?

Answer 1

The answer depends on the type of Diabetes. Diabetes is the name of a disease describing dis-regulation of blood sugar.

When the pancreas gland delivers too little insulin, blood sugar can rise beyond normal and cause a host of undesirable consequences. Untreated, it can cause death. This is called type 1 diabetes.

When insulin receptors in the body's cells lose sensitivity to the insulin secreted by the pancreas gland, blood sugar is similarly uncontrolled. Again in this case, death could result if the condition is left untreated. This is called type 2 diabetes, or sometimes "Adult Onset Diabetes" or "Late Onset Diabetes".

The underlying cause of type 1 diabetes could be pre- or post- birth hormonal or environmental, but in any case the pancreas is not generating enough insulin to keep blood sugar within an acceptable range. The common solution is to inject insulin into the bloodstream from outside.

Type 2 diabetes results from chronic and excessive consumption of simple sugars. It is best controlled through lifestyle and diet modifications. Incidentally, it is no longer referred to as Adult onset or Late onset diabetes. The incidence of simple sugars in the American diet is so pervasive that type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among our children, some as young as 10.