Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia (high glucose blood sugar), among other signs. more...

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The World Health Organization recognizes three main forms of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes (or type 3, occurring during pregnancy) , although these share signs and symptoms but have different causes and population distributions. They are not a single disease or condition. Type 1 is generally due to autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing cells — pancreatic beta cells — while type 2 is characterized by tissue wide insulin resistance and varies widely. Gestational diabetes is due to a poorly understood interaction between fetal needs and maternal metabolic controls. Type 2 sometimes progresses to loss of beta cell function as well.

Since the first use of insulin (1921) Types 1 and 2 have been incurable, but treatable, chronic conditions; gestational diabetes typically resolves with delivery. Aside from acute glucose level abnormalities, the main risks to health are the characteristic long-term complications. These include cardiovascular disease (doubled risk), chronic renal failure (the main cause of dialysis in developed world adults), retinal damage (which can lead to blindness and is the most significant cause of adult blindness in the non-elderly in the developed world), nerve damage (of several kinds), and microvascular damage (including erectile dysfunction (impotence) and poor healing which can lead to gangrene and even amputation — the leading cause of non-traumatic amputation in developed world adults).

Terminology

The term diabetes (Greek: διαβήτης) was coined by Aretaeus of Cappadocia. It is derived from the Greek word διαβαίνειν, diabaínein that literally means "passing through," or "siphon," a reference to one of diabetes' major symptoms—excessive urine production. In 1675 Thomas Willis added mellitus from the Latin word meaning a sweet taste. This had been noticed long before in ancient times by the Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, and Indians. In 1776 Matthew Dobson confirmed the sweet taste was because of an excess of a kind of sugar in the urine and blood of people with diabetes.

The ancient Indians tested for diabetes by observing whether ants were attracted to a person's urine, and called the ailment "sweet urine disease" (Madhumeha). The Korean, Chinese, and Japanese words for diabetes are based on the same ideographs (糖尿病) and also mean "sweet urine disease." Medieval European doctors tested for it by tasting the urine themselves which was occasionally depicted in Gothic reliefs.

Read more at Wikipedia.org