Diabetes & Other Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders

Overview of Diabetes

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition in which sufficient amounts of insulin are either not produced, or the body is unable to use the insulin that is produced. Diabetes can be defined as a metabolic disorder, because the disease affects the way the body metabolizes, or uses, digested food to make glucose, the main source of fuel for the body. Diabetes may be the result of conditions such as genetic syndromes, chemicals, medications, malnutrition, infections, viruses, or other illnesses. The three main types of diabetes include:

• type 1 diabetes
  Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the cells that produce insulin, resulting in no or a low amount of insulin. People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily in order to live.
  
  
• type 2 diabetes
  Type 2 diabetes is a result of the body's inability to make enough, or to properly use, insulin. Type 2 diabetes may be controlled with diet, exercise, and weight loss, or may require oral medication and/or insulin injections.
  
  
• gestational diabetes
  Gestational diabetes is a condition in which the glucose level is elevated and other diabetic symptoms appear during pregnancy in a woman who has not previously been diagnosed with diabetes. In most cases, all diabetic symptoms disappear following delivery.

What is pre-diabetes?

In pre-diabetes, blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be defined as diabetes. However, many people with pre-diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years, states the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Pre-diabetes also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. With modest weight loss and moderate physical activity, people with pre-diabetes can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes.

How does diabetes affect blood glucose?

For glucose to be able to move into the cells of the body, the hormone insulin must be present. Insulin is produced in the pancreas, and, normally, is readily available to move glucose into the cells. However, in people who have diabetes, either the pancreas produces too little or no insulin, or certain cells in the body do not respond to the insulin that is produced. This causes a build up of glucose in the blood, which passes into the urine where it is eventually eliminated, leaving the body without its main source of fuel.

What is maturity-onset diabetes in the young (MODY)?

Although often misdiagnosed as type 1 or type 2 diabetes, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a group of diseases characterized by inherited early-onset diabetes (between age 9 and 25) coupled with B-cell dysfunction (a cell that originates in the bone marrow and plays a major role in the body's immune response). Three genetic mutations have been identified that appear to cause three versions of MODY (MODY 1, MODY 2, and MODY 3).

Severity of the diabetes symptoms associated with MODY vary depending on the type of MODY diagnosed. MODY 2 appears to be the mildest form of the disease, often only causing mild hyperglycemia and impaired glucose tolerance. MODY 1 and 3 may require treatment with insulin, much like type 1 diabetes.