"Worldwide, more than 50 million people suffer from some form of diabetes. Diabetes used to be considered a disease of rich people and rich nations. Not anymore. Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) have noted that the highest prevalence rates of diabetes are found in developing countries," said the editors of Health Alert, a publication of the Health Action Information Network (HAIN).



Diabetes mellitus has been with us since ancient times. The Greeks gave the disease its present name which means "to run through" after observing diabetics urinated more than other people. The word mellitus or sweet was added in the 17th century to distinguish it from diabetes insipidus, a different disease caused by a pituitary gland disorder.

Most people think that diabetes is caused by eating too much sugar or sweets. But even if you eat tons of sugar, you won't get diabetes provided you have enough insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that is needed to metabolize and maintain normal levels of blood sugar.

"Although people with diabetes usually must limit their intake of sugar, it is the inability to produce or use insulin, not the amount of sugar they consume, that causes the disease," according to Carol Ann Rinzler in Feed A Cold, Starve A Fever: A Dictionary of Medical Folklore.

There are two types of diabetes. One is insulin-depend¬ent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) which is also known as type I, juvenile, ketosis-prone, or juvenile-onset diabetes. In this condition, the pancreas produces little or no insulin because special cells within that organ needed to create insulin have been destroyed by the body.

"This is a good example of an autoimmune disease in which a 'normal* constituent is perceived by the body to be an 'enemy' and so 'killed.' We're not sure why this happens in some children and not in others. It has been suggested that a viral infection early in life is the trigger for this bizarre response. Regardless of the underlying cause, these diabetic youngsters have no insulin," explained Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld of the New York Hospital - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in The Best Treatment.

IDDM can affect anyone but it usually occurs in children and young adults. Young males appear to be more susceptible to the disease than females. Heredity is believed to be a factor since children who have two diabetic parents have a 20 percent risk of acquiring the disease. To prevent complications and death, these people regularly need insulin injections. (Next: Symptoms of diabetes.)

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