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Diabetes Mellitus
Background
Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. Glucose comes from the digestion of starchy foods such as bread, rice, potatoes, chapatis, yams and plantain, from sugar and other sweet foods, and from the liver which makes glucose.
Insulin is vital for life. It is a hormone produced by the pancreas, which helps the glucose to enter the cells where it is used as fuel by the body.
Type 1 diabetes develops if the body is unable to produce any insulin. This type of diabetes usually appears before the age of forty. It is treated by insulin injections and diet.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance). This type of diabetes usually appears in people over the age of forty, though often appears before the age of forty in South Asian and African-Caribbean people. It is treated by diet alone or by diet and tablets or, sometimes, by diet and insulin injections.
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