What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a common and prevalent disease that occurs when the blood glucose levels in your blood get too high. In general, blood glucose comes from the food you eat and is the main source of energy for your body to perform routine and necessary tasks. Most of the food that you eat is broken down into glucose by the body and this glucose is sent through your blood to every part of your body for energy.

Many hormones play an important role in converting the food you eat into glucose. One such hormone is called insulin and this is made by the organ called pancreas. The insulin hormone is responsible for taking the glucose from your blood stream and delivering them to each individual cell.

Definition...

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder of multiple etiologies. It is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia together with disturbances of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from defects of insulin secretion, insulin action or both. The relative contribution of these varies between different types of diabetes.

These are associated with the development of the specific microvascular complications of retinopathy, which can lead to blindness, nephropathy with potential renal failure, and neuropathy. The latter carries the risk of foot ulcers and amputation and also autonomic nerve dysfunction. Diabetes is also associated with an increased risk of macrovascular disease.

The characteristic clinical presentation is with thirst, polyuria, blurring of vision and weight loss. This can lead to ketoacidosis or hyperosmolar non - ketotic coma. Often, symptoms are mild or absent and mild hyperglycemia can persist for years with tissue damage developing, although the person may be totally asymptomatic.

Diabetics either do not produce enough insulin due to a malfunctioning pancreas, or their body's cells do not adequately respond to the insulin circulating through their bloodstream. As a result, the person's blood is flooded with glucose.