Diabetes - also known medically as diabetes mellitus - is a group of diseases that affect the way your body uses blood sugar.

Glucose is vital to your health because it is your body's main source of fuel. Normally, glucose is able to enter your cells because of the action of insulin - a hormone secreted by your pancreas. Insulin acts like a key to unlock microscopic doors that allow glucose into your cells. However, in diabetes mellitus, this process goes awry. Instead of being transported into your cells, glucose accumulates in your bloodstream and eventually is excreted in your urine. This usually occurs either because your body does not produce enough insulin or because the cells do not respond to insulin properly.

Diabetes is diagnosed when two fasting blood glucose values are greater than 126 mg/dl, or when two random blood glucose values are greater than 200 mg/dl accompanied with symptoms.

Diabetes mainly occurs in two forms:

Type 1 diabetes
This type develops when your pancreas makes little or no insulin. It affects between 5 percent and 10 percent of people with the disease. Here's the brief outlook of this condition:
Insulin production: absent
Age at onset: usually before 40. If diabetes occurs after 40, it has usually slow onset.
Physical appearance: often thin.
Symptoms: sudden onset: greater thirst, urination, hunger, weight loss, blurred vision, infections.
Treatment: insulin, diet, exercise.


Type 2 diabetes.
This type is far more common than type 1, affecting between 90 percent and 95 percent of people with diabetes over age 20. It occurs when your body is resistant to the effects of insulin or your pancreas produces some, but not enough, insulin to maintain a normal glucose level. Here's the brief outlook of this condition:
Insulin production: normal or abnormal
Age at onset: usually after 40, although increasing in younger people.
Physical appearance: often overweight, especially apple figure
Symptoms: gradual, subtle onset of similar symptoms
Treatment: diet, exercise, oral agents and/or insulin.

More Americans have diabetes than ever before. The disease affects 17 million adults and children, yet close to a third of them may not know they have it. That is because diabetes can develop gradually over many years, often with no symptoms. Both types of diabetes are serious. The accumulation of glucose in your blood can damage almost every major organ in your body. Eventually, diabetes can be fatal. Diabetes has many dangerous and life-threatening side health effects. It is a major cause of blindness and amputations of the lower extremities. Diabetes also increases the risk of dying from heart attack or stroke. That is why diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

No one has yet found a cure for diabetes. Nevertheless, the good news is that eating right, maintaining a healthy weight and getting plenty of exercise can help prevent the disease. And if you have diabetes, diet and exercise along with medications that control blood sugar can help you continue to live a healthy and active life.