What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as the diabetes-is a group of metabolic disease in which a person who has high blood sugar levels, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because the cells do not respond to the insulin produced. This high blood sugar produces the classic symptoms of polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst) and polyphagia (increased hunger).

There are three main types of diabetes:

  • Type 1 diabetes: results from the failure of the body to produce insulin, and now requires people to inject insulin. (Also known as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, IDDM in the short term, and juvenile diabetes.)
  • Type 2 diabetes: results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with absolute insulin deficiency.
  • Gestational diabetes: is when a pregnant mother, who has never had diabetes before, have high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. This may precede the development of type 2 DM.

Other forms of diabetes mellitus including congenital diabetes, which is due to genetic defects in insulin secretion, cystic fibrosis related diabetes, steroid diabetes is caused by high-dose glucocorticoids, and some forms of diabetes monogenik.