Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is a medical condition caused by a lack or inefficient use of insulin to bring glucose into our body cells.
The History of Diabetes Mellitus
The word "diabetes" actually has its origin from the Greek with the meaning "siphon". It is because people with diabetes may urinate frequently and copiously when left untreated. Frequent urination is one of the major symptoms associated with diabetes.
The word "mellitus", which came from Latin, was added in the late seventeenth century. Thus, the name of this disease became known as diabetes mellitus from then on. "Mellitus" means "sweet". Some early cases used to be discovered when ants were found feeding on the urine passed by people with diabetes. In fact, in the early days diagnosis was made by tasting the urine.
Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is a long-term illness characterized by high glucose level in the blood. People who are afflicted with diabetes mellitus tend to produce lots of sweet urine because their bodies have lost the ability to control the level of glucose in their bloodstream.
In a normal and healthy person, foods that have been digested are turned into glucose. Glucose is then absorbed into the bloodstream and brought into the cells in our body. Glucose is the body's basic fuel that powers all the activities in our body cells. Nevertheless, glucose cannot get into our body cells without the help of one hormone - insulin. It is the only hormone that has this ability to bring glucose into the cells.
In a normal person, insulin levels always rise and fall to keep the blood glucose level in the bloodstream somewhat within a normal range. The hormone insulin comes from an organ called the pancreas. Insulin is produced in some specialized cells known as the beta cells in the Isle of Langerhans in the pancreas.
When a person has diabetes mellitus, production of the hormone insulin breaks down or the pancreas secretes very little amount of insulin due to some damages to these specialized cells, thus this person has difficulty in using glucose for energy. This is because there is simply not enough or no insulin to bring glucose into the cells. In another case, a person's pancreas still release insulin normally, but the body cells are resistant to the effect of the insulin. In both situations, glucose is not able to be utilized by our body cells and thus the glucose accumulates in our bloodstream. The excess glucose is then excreted in the urine through the kidneys.
When glucose cannot get into the body cells, the cells do not get their proper supply of food for energy. This is somewhat similar to starvation. A diabetic is literally starving because his or her body cannot use the glucose from the food that has been digested. For those diabetic patients whose pancreas do not produce insulin at all, their bodies will simply break down fats. A by-product of fat metabolism is ketones. The presence of ketones could lead to a serious condition called Diabetic Ketoacidosis, which can cause coma or death if not treated.
There are two main forms of diabetes mellitus, which are known as:
Some pregnant women develop diabetes mellitus during their pregnancies. This is often referred to as Gestational Diabetes.
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