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Diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus) diabetes_diabetes_mellitus.mp3
Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterized by an inability to make or use the hormone insulin. Insulin is needed by cells to metabolize glucose, the body's main source of chemical energy. Type I diabetes, also called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, is usually caused by an autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing cells. Type II diabetes, also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, occurs when cells become resistant to the effects of insulin.
diabetes_diabetes_mellitus.mp3
Diabetes mellitus actually means "sweet urine". It may shock you that, in fact, in the old days the way this diagnosis was made was by a quick little sample of the taste, and distinguished diabetes mellitus from diabetes insipidus, which was tasteless urine, which was a different problem in the pituitary. Oh well. A little historical note shouldn't distract from the importance of this disease. There's a Type 1, which affects kids, which is really an autoimmune disease, and a Type 2, which is much more common, affecting an increasing number of adults, because it's very much associated with environment and particularly with a diet, and gaining weight, and lack of exercise; all the things that are so characteristics of our current Western civilization...a major disease in terms of its impact on people, its contribution to suffering, and medical expense.