What is diabetes mellitus?
Diabetes mellitus is a lifelong disease characterized by increased level of sugar (glucose) in blood. There are approximately 750 000 of diabetics in the Czech Republic now (data from the end of 2006) and their number increases each year by 5 - 6%; moreover, it is supposed that 300 000 of people do not know about their disease yet.
Why and how diabetes rises?
Diabetes comes up as a consequence of insufficient production or insufficient use of hormone insulin. Insulin is produced by β-cells of pancreas and enables blood sugar - glucose (which gets into blood after ingestion of food) transport from blood to cells. Glucose is the main source of energy for tissues. The presence of glucose in blood is called glycemia. Levels of glycemia are measured and expressed in units called milimol per liter (mmol/l).
If there is a lack of insulin or it is not sufficiently utilized in organism, more glucose is accumulated in blood (hyperglycemia). On the contrary, if insufficient amount of food is ingested or intensive exercise is performed without being sufficiently covered by food, low level of glucose in blood appears (hypoglycemia). Normal glycemia in healthy person ranges between 4 - 6 mmol/l.
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder. Simply said, it is a disease when processing and utilization of sugars, lipids and proteins in organism is impaired. If diabetes is not treated or recommended rules of treatment are not kept, another serious diseases and complications may appear and progress.
The cause of this disorder is not known, however several accepted triggering factors were identified, e.g. genetic disposition and effect of environment (stress, viroses, obesity, etc.) or other factors (race, gender, age, etc.).
Since the triggering mechanisms may vary, various types of diabetes are distinguished:
