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What Is Diabetes?
If your doctor recently diagnosed you with diabetes, you're one of nearly 16
million people in the United States -- nearly one in 17 people -- who have diabetes. About 2,200
new cases are diagnosed each day.
Technically, this disease is known as "diabetes mellitus" -- diabetes from
the Greek for siphon, to describe the excessive thirst
and urination characteristic of this condition, and mellitus from the Latin
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.
People who have diabetes either
don't produce insulin or can't efficiently use the insulin they produce.
There are many
types of diabetes, but the three most common are:
- Type 1
- Type 2
- Gestational diabetes
All are a little different. But everyone with
diabetes has one thing in common: Little or no ability to move sugar -- or glucose -- out of the
blood into the cells, where it becomes the body's primary fuel.
Everyone has glucose in
their blood, whether or not they have diabetes. This glucose comes from food. When we eat, the
digestive process breaks down food into glucose, which is absorbed into the blood in the small
intestine.
People who don't have diabetes 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, 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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