Information on Diabetes
Diabetes extracts a significant
toll both on those who experience the disease as well as on health
care systems and economies throughout the world. In the United States,
diabetes mellitus is the fifth leading cause of death by disease.
The health care system costs related to diabetes exceed $174 billion
per year and the costs to the economy in lost work are even greater.
Diabetes is a long-term, progressive disease with no known cure.
The World Health Organization and the US Center for Disease Control
have expressed alarm at the increase in diabetes throughout the
world, which has been rapid since World War II and especially rapid
during the recent years since 1990.
Type 1 diabetes, known also as early onset, juvenile, or insulin-dependent diabetes, accounts for about 10 percent of the diagnosed cases of diabetes. It requires insulin therapy to sustain life. Type 2, also known as adult or late-onset diabetes, afflicts most of the remaining 90 percent of those with diabetes. The onset of Type 2 diabetes is highly correlated with age.
The incidence rate of
diabetes is not significantly different between men and women. Diabetes
is characterized by the inability of the body to maintain levels
of glucose in the blood. Proper levels of glucose are maintained
by insulin secretion from the pancreas and insulin action in muscle,
fat and liver tissue. Diabetic patients either do not produce insulin,
or their tissues do not respond properly to insulin. In Type 1 diabetes,
the body's autoimmune system destroys insulin-producing cells. In
Type 2 diabetes, the body becomes resistant to insulin in addition
to pancreatic secretion problems.
- Rare types of diabetes include loss of the pancreas to trauma, cancer, alcohol abuse, or exposure to chemicals.
- Gestational (pregnancy-related)
diabetes occurs in about 3% of all pregnancies. This type of diabetes
resolves upon delivery but the women with histories of gestational
diabetes may go on to develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
