What is Diabetes

The Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary defines diabetes as:

diabetes mellitus a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism in which sugars in the body are not oxidized to produce energy due to a lack of the pancreatic hormone insulin. The accumulation of sugar leads to its appearance in the blood (hyperglycaemia), then in the urine; symptoms include thirst, loss of weight, and the excessive production of urine. The use of fats as an alternative source of energy leads to disturbances of the acid-base balance, the accumulation of ketones in the blood stream (ketosis), and eventually to convulsions preceding diabetic coma. There appears to be an inherited tendency to diabetes; the disorder may be triggered by various factors, including physical stress. Diabetes that starts in childhood or adolescence is usually more severe than that beginning in middle or old age. Treatment is based on a carefully controlled diet, with adequate carbohydrate for the body's needs, together with injections of insulin or drugs (such as tolbutamide) that are taken by mouth to lower blood-glucose levels. Lack of balance in the diet or in the amount of insulin taken leads to hypoglycaemia. Long-term complications of diabetes include thickening of the arteries, which can affect the eye (diabetic retinopathy).