There is a lot we have to learn about diabetes.
It is a disease where the sufferer needs to know as much as the doctor so he can manage on his own and lead a normal life.
To help him in this, he needs an interested and well-informed doctor, and he may obtain help, advice and encouragement from the Diabetic Association or Foundation, branches of which are in every State.
Diabetes mellitus is not really one disease but a variety of related disorders of metabolism which have in common an increased level of sugar in the blood and the presence of sugar in the urine.
The fuel of the body is glucose, a sugar all the cells need for nutrition. It is transported through the body via the bloodstream.
It is stored in the liver and released into the blood when the level there drops. A variety of hormones and other chemicals stimulate the liver to release the glucose. If a real shortage develops, the liver can even be stimulated to break down protein and fat and make glucose from them.
Insulin is concerned with moving the glucose out of the blood into the cells. It therefore has the effect of lowering the level of glucose in the blood.
Diabetes may be regarded as a condition of relative lack of insulin.
Both the production of insulin and of a chemical which stimulates the liver to release glucose occurs in special cells of the pancreas, an organ which lies high up on the back wall of the abdomen behind the stomach. It produces enzymes which pass along a duct to the duodenum, or first part of the small bowel and help to digest food.
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