DIABETES: THE HOW AND THE WHY
YOUR BODY makes glucose, a kind of sugar, from the foods you eat. This glucose travels through the bloodstream for immediate use as “fuel”, or is stored in the liver for future use. When there is a build-up of glucose in the blood, the pancreas sends out a hormone, insulin. It is the action of insulin that enables glucose to move from the bloodstream into the body’s cells, which then use the glucose as a source of energy. Diabetes results when, for one reason or another, there is a breakdown in this process and glucose accumulates in the blood. In other words, diabetes signifies the body’s inability to use glucose (sugar) as fuel in the normal way. When diabetes sets in before age 30, it is generally because the pancreas is producing a deficient amount of insulin — or none at all —Because me body mistakenly destroys the cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin. There are no oral drugs for this type of diabetes which usually starts abruptly. It always needs to be treated by supplying the missing hormone through injections of insulin. Even one day without insulin can bring on the risk of diabetic coma and death. This type of diabetes is known as Insulin-Dependent Diabetes (IDD), or juvenile-onset diabetes, or Type I diabetes.When diabetes occurs in adults over age 40, it is often because they are genetically pre-disposed to develop it (A family-history search could uncover close relatives who have or had it). Peoplewith adult-onset diabetes typically produce sufficient amounts of insulin in the pancreas. Bat the hormone has lost its ability to effectively move glucose out of the blood and into the cells, resulting in a condition known as insulin resistance. In effect, the cells resist the action of insulin, causing sugar levels to accumulate in the blood.This results in what is known as adult-onset diabetes or Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes (NIDD) — so called because, except in a small proportion of diabetics and in certain emergency situations, it does not need to be treated with insulin. 90 per cent of diabetics have the Type II form of the disease.*61\332\2*
