What's Diabetes

Answer 1

Diabetes Mellitus is a condition where the body does not produce enough insulin (a hormone made in the pancreas that controls the blood glucose levels) to break down the sugar (glucose) in your blood after calorie consumption. Or, in some people, the insulin is produced, but they have developed a resistance to proper utilization of insulin.

Therefore, your blood glucose goes to high levels and that can cause damage to the circulatory system, the kidneys, the blood vessels in the eyes and retina, the nervous system, and other complications of the disease over time when uncontrolled.

When a person has this type of Diabetes, blood glucose levels can be controlled by taking insulin (usually shots), oral hypoglycemic medicine, and/or going on a special low calorie diet that is taken in small amounts frequently throughout the day to keep glucose more stable. Scientists are finding that eating cinnamon also helps to control stable blood sugar levels.

There are different types of diabetes mellitus. The most common are:

1. Juvenile onset (type 1) diabetes. This is the most severe type of diabetes, onset is early in life; in infancy or early childhood.
   
2. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus - Often your pancreas has not shut down entirely, but your body may have developed insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes normally happens in the age range of 30+ and often in the obese. Dieting and Weight Loss can be very helpful to control this type of diabetes.
   
3. Gestational Diabetes Mellitus - Some women develop this type of diabetes during pregnancy even if they have never had problems before then. It often resolves after the pregnancy.
4. Diabetes Mellitus can be caused temporarily in patients who are receiving steroid medication and some other types of medication.
5. An entirely different disorder is also called diabetes at times, and is actually Diabetes Insipidus. This is caused by a tumor or other problem in the function of the pituitary gland. It is rare, and treatment may involve surgical intervention, although this is not always an option. Like Diabetes Mellitus, it causes increased thirst and consumption of large amounts of water which not only increases frequency and amounts of urine, the dilution of urine can create other problems. It is not related to the blood glucose and is called diabetes only because the word means excessive discharge of urine and persistent thirst which are symptoms that the two different conditions have in common.

For more information about these conditions, see the related links in the related links section.
Diabetes is a disease wherein there is high blood glucose in the body. This could be brought about by low or no insulini in the body to help glucose be absorbed by the cells for use or there is low sensitivity to insulin in the body.