What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder. The term metabolism means the way food is digested and used for energy and growth in our body. Most of the food a person eats is digested and broken down into glucose. Glucose is the type of simple sugar present in blood that the cells use for energy. It is the main source of fuel for our bodies. The cells in the body can utilise glucose if insulin is present. Insulin is a type of hormone. It is produced by the pancreas, a gland in human body situated behind the stomach.

Normally when you eat something, the food is digested and converted to glucose. This causes an increase in blood sugar levels. In response to the increase in blood, glucose levels the pancreas automatically secrete the right amount of insulin. Insulin helps to move glucose from blood into the cells where it is utilised for energy. However, in people with diabetes the pancreas either secrete less than the required insulin or no insulin at all, or the cells fail to use glucose even in presence of insulin (due to insulin resistance). This causes increase in blood glucose levels. Increase of blood glucose levels causes overflow of glucose in urine.

Thus, the cells of the body starve (they don’t get their essential energy and growth requirement) even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose and the excess glucose is lost in urine.

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