What exactly is diabetes?

Answer 1

Everyone has a pancreas which makes INSULIN.
Every cell in your body needs sugar to work, just like a car needs fuel. Insulin is released from the pancreas when the muscles need sugar/ fuel and allow sugar to get into the cells. (Like taking the cap off the fuel tank in a car)

DIABETES means that the pancreas is not working right and either makes no insulin at all (Type 1 diabetes) or some but not enough insulin (type II diabetes) for the food you eat.

Nearly all food can be converted to sugar, apart from the things that are obviously full of sugar like sugar itself, sweets, cakes, sweet drinks.

Type I diabetics need insulin injections every day to use the sugar they need to live. They also need to eat enough but not too much carbohydrates/ sugar.

Type II diabetics MAY need insulin, or tablets to make their own insulin more efficient or just a reduced sugar diet- it depends how much insulin their pancreas is making.

Answer 2

Diabetes is when the body is either unable to produce or produces insufficient amounts of insulin, an enzyme produced in the pancreas, that breaks down sugar. It can cause a persons blood sugars to increase or decrease. When a persons blood sugar is too high they suffer from what is called hyperglycemia and causes nausea, vomiting, dizziness and what can be described as a pear drop sweet smell from the mouth, and aggression and sometimes the person can go into a coma if not treated. When a persons blood sugars decreases it is called hypoglycemia and causes the same results as above. Both cause the individual to appear drunk as they are disorientated
It can also affect your eyesight causing glaucoma (which is in itself blindness due to a pressure build up behind the eye). Diabetes can also affect your feet and cause nueropathy, which means you loose all feeling in your feet and lower legs.
However through a controlled healthy diet, tablets or insulin injections diabetes can be controlled quite easily with little or no impact upon everyday activities.

Answer 3

Diabetes Mellitus, more commonly referred to as Diabetes, means (roughly) 'passing a lot of sweet urine'

It got this name because if you've got it, your pee tastes sweet. No, really. It does.

It tastes sweet because the sugar levels in your blood are high, and the Kidneys (which make urine) can't filter it out.

The sugar levels in your blood are high either because your pancreas can't produce enough insulin to make your cells absorb the sugar out of your blood (Type 1 Diabetes) or because your cells are no longer interested in doing what the insulin tells them (type 2 diabetes).

If you're unlucky enough to have type 1, then my guess is you already know all this and are taking insulin. If you have type 2, then it may be that you just need to change your diet, lose some weight, or take tablets to help control your blood sugar. Eventually some people with type 2 also require treating with insulin.

Having high blood sugar is bad for you because organs like your heart, arteries, eyes and kidneys don't like it. In turn this puts you at risk of heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, circulation problems (especially in your feet) and infections.

Don't despair though. With the right treatment, you can achieve good blood sugar control with either type 1 or 2 diabetes and therefore greatly reduce the risks of all of these problems.

Hope that answer wasn't too long.

Answer 4

Typically diabetes is having too much sugar in your blood because your pancreas isn't producing enough insulin to help your body absorb it.

I just was diagnosed with Type II diabetes within the last year.

Check out this website for lots of great info on the subject.

http://www.joslin.org/

Answer 5

Type 1 diabetes: The person's pancreas does not produce insulin or does not produce enough insulin to effectively process blood glucose.
Type 2 diabetes: The person has likely become resistant to insulin which reduces its ability to effectively process blood glucose.
The result of either is high levels of glucose in the blood stream, which creates many other problems such as kidney malfunction, eye disorders, nerve damage, heart failure, death.
If you have diabetes, or suspect that you may have it, SEE A DOCTOR!!!

NOW!

Answer 6

okay, food goes into the body, carbohydrates are converted to monosaccharide glucose, then insulin is released by the pancraes so that as the glucose travels around the body it can be easily absorbed into the cells and put to work, energy, conversion to other molecules. the excess glucose in then stored in the liver as glycogen, (which can be converted back into glucose by low levels of insulin for energy, mostly for the brain.)
if the pancreas can't produce the insulin then this causes type 1 diabetes, this is when you are a insulin dependent diabetic.

type 2 diabetes is when insulin levels are high, usually due to obesity and/or high level suger intake. this is caused when insulin receptors lose responsiveness to insulin.

Answer 7

High sugar level in your blood. It occurs when your body does not produce enough insuline to "get rid" of that sugar coming from carbs or sweet stuff. The diabetes during pregnancy normally disappears after giving birth.

Answer 8

Well, there's hypoglycemia...which is a form of diabetes. You have to eat every few hours to keep your blood sugar levels regulated.

Or there's the other type, where your body doesn't make enough insulin and you have to inject it into your body, or control it with medication.

Answer 9

Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterized by persistent hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels), resulting either from inadequate secretion of the hormone insulin, an inadequate response of target cells to insulin, or a combination of these factors

Answer 10

Your body looses the power to break down sugar, therefore sending you into a hypo. It is very dangerous and diabetes leads to heart disease. It is prominent in the Asian population for some reason.
Symptoms include being thirsty and needing the toilet all of the time.