Diabetes Overview

What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism, affecting the way our bodies use digested food for growth and energy. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose, the form of sugar in the blood. Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body. After digestion, glucose passes into the bloodstream, where it is used by cells. For glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach. When we eat, the pancreas automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into our cells. In people with diabetes, however, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced. Glucose builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine, and passes out of the body. Thus, the body loses its main source of fuel, even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.

If your doctor recently diagnosed you with diabetes, you're one of nearly 16 million people in the United States who have diabetes. About 1 in 17 people have diabetes and about 2,200 new cases are diagnosed each day.

Technically, this disease is known as "diabetes mellitus" - diabetes comes from the Greek word for siphon, to describe the excessive thirst and urination characteristic of this condition, and mellitus comes from the Latin word for honey; diabetic urine is filled with sugar and is sweet. Physicians and medical books use the term diabetes mellitus, but colloquially, this disease is simply called diabetes.

There are many types of diabetes, but the three most common are:

All are a little different. But everyone with diabetes has one thing in common: Little or no ability to move glucose sugar out of the blood and into the cells, where it becomes the body's primary fuel.

Everyone has glucose in their blood as it comes from food. When we eat, the digestive process breaks down food into glucose, which is absorbed into the blood in the small intestine.

We rely on insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas, to move glucose from the blood into the body's billions of cells. But people who have diabetes either don't produce insulin or can't efficiently use the insulin they produce. Without insulin, they can't move glucose into their cells. Glucose accumulates in the blood -- a condition called hyperglycemia ("hyper" = too much, "glycemia" glucose in the blood) -- and over time, this can cause very serious health problems.

Scientists don't know exactly what causes diabetes, but it appears to result from a combination of genetics and environmental factors, including viral infections, poor diet, and sedentary lifestyle.

Currently, diabetes can't be cured, but the good news is that the disease can be managed. People with diabetes can live fulfilling, healthy lives.

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