What Is Diabetes Mellitus?
To put it simply, you have Diabetes Mellitus when too much sugar is circulating in your blood stream. Sugar, also known as glucose, is an important and necessary fuel for our bodies. So necessary, that both the liver and the kidneys produce it naturally; however, we get most sugar from the foods we eat.
Blood sugar levels normally stay in a certain range. In other words, your body has a system that regulates how much sugar is circulating in your blood stream. That system centers on a hormone called insulin, which is released from cells located in the pancreas.
Insulin speeds up the transfer of sugar from your blood and delivers it into your muscle, liver and fat tissues where it is used as fuel or stored for your body to use later.
If you don’t have enough insulin, sugar accumulates in your blood stream and you have diabetes. There are different factors that determine why you don’t have enough insulin, and those factors determine if you have type 1, type 2, gestational diabetes or other types of diabetes.