Diabetes - Diabetes Mellitus

The word diabetes- technically known as "diabetes mellitus"- It refers to the increased urination and thirst that occurs in newly diagnosed cases. These symptoms are due to the high sugar (glucose) content in the urine. The sugar drags water out with it, the body gets dry and you feel thirsty. The word mellitus comes from the Latin for honey; diabetic urine is filled with sugar and is sweet. Doctors and mostly all medical books use the term diabetes mellitus, but this disease is commonly known simply as diabetes.

There are many types of diabetes, but the three most common are: Type one, type two, and gestational diabetes. Each type of diabetes is different. But everyone with this disease has one thing in common: Little or no ability to move sugar (glucose) out of the blood into the cells, where it becomes the body's basic fuel. Everyone has sugar in their blood, whether or not they have diabetes. This glucose comes from food. When we eat, the digestive process breaks down food into glucose, which is absorbed into the blood in the small intestine.

People who have diabetes either don't produce insulin or can't efficiently use the insulin they produce. Without insulin, they can't move sugar into their cells. Sugar grows in the blood- a condition called hyperglycemia. ("Hyper" which means too much, and "glycemia" which means glucose in the blood.) And as time goes on, it can cause very serious health problems. Scientists don't know exactly what causes diabetes, but research says that it may result from different genetics and environmental factors, including viral infections, poor diet, and an inactive lifestyle.

People with type 1 diabetes (also called insulin-dependent diabetes) don't produce insulin and need regular shots of it to keep their blood glucose levels normal. Type 1 diabetes once was called "juvenile-onset" diabetes, but that has recently changed because both young adults and juveniles can have type 1 diabetes. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of people have type 1 diabetes.

About 95 percent of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes (also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus). The people with type 2 produce insulin, but the cells in their bodies are "insulin resistant"- they don't respond properly to the hormone, so sugar grows in their blood. Some people with type 2 diabetes must inject insulin, but most can control the disease through a combination of weight loss, exercise, and a prescription oral diabetes medication.

Gestational diabetes develops only in pregnant women with no other history of diabetes. Nearly 135,000 U.S. women develop gestational diabetes each year. Usually, gestational diabetes clears up on its own after women have delivered their babies. But studies show that about 40% of women with gestational diabetes tend to develop type 2 diabetes within 15