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Diabetes Mellitus ( Diabetes )

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Diabetes mellitus (“diabetes”) is composed of two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Both types of diabetes affect how ones body uses blood sugar (“glucose”). Glucose is vital to an individual’s health. Glucose is an important source of energy used by the cells that make up muscles, and it also serves as the brain’s main source of fuel (American Diabetes Association, 2005). There are numerous causes of diabetes, however everyone afflicted with the disease has too much glucose in their blood. Too much glucose in one’s blood can lead to serious health problems. The definition of diabetes is that the body is unable to produce any or enough insulin, which causes elevated levels of glucose in the blood (ADA,2005). This occurs in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which are both similar the structure of the autoimmune disease but differ from each other in that type 1 is an acute dysfunction of the pancreas usually occurring at a young age, and type 2 is progressive due to increasing inability of cells to respond to insulin, usually due to life style.
Pathophysiology of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes (Prevention, 2005). Type 1 is fairly rare, and only inflicts 5% of people with diabetes (Prevention, 2005). In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life

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