Diabetes Mellitus, often cited as Sugar Diabetes, is a metabolic disorder wherein body produces insufficient insulin or cells fail to respond to the insulin that is produced. Insulin is a hormone which is essential to convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy. Diabetes Mellitus can be also stated as a polygenic disease and is characterized by abnormally high glucose levels (sugar) in the blood.
Types of Diabetes Mellitus
Basically, there are three main types of Diabetes Mellitus:
Type 1 Diabetes: An autoimmune disease which deals with loss of the insulin-producing beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas leading to insulin deficiency. In a simpler language, this type of diabetes happens when body fails to produce insulin. Type 1 Diabetes can be further classified as immune-mediated or idiopathic.
Type 2 Diabetes: Results when cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency. Type 2 Diabetes is the most common type.
Gestational Diabetes: Resembles Type 2 Diabetes in several respects and usually defined as “Type 3 Diabetes”. This type happens when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a high blood glucose level during pregnancy. This type of diabetes occurs in about 2–5% of all pregnancies and may improve or disappear after delivery. Type 3 Diabetes is fully treatable. However, it requires careful medication throughout pregnancy. Around 20-50% of affected women develop Type 2 Diabetes later in life.
Other types of Diabetes Mellitus:
- Congenital Diabetes – Occurs due to genetic defects of insulin secretion
- Cystic fibrosis-related Diabetes
- Steroid Diabetes – Occurs when induced by high doses of glucocorticoids
- Several forms of Monogenic Diabetes
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