What is Diabetes Mellitus? Part 1.

Diabetes comes from a Greek word that means "to pass through," referring to increased urination. "Mellitus" comes from Latin, meaning "sweet," relating to the sweet taste of urine in diabetes due to excess sugar.

In the U.S. in 2020, about 10.5% (34.2 million) had diabetes, mainly Type 2, with significant health impacts, complications, and economic challenges.

I want to try to explain diabetes as easily as possible using an analogy.  This is part 1 of a 3 part series explaining what diabetes is, why it is bad for you, and what to do about it.

Let’s get started.

The easiest way to think of type two diabetes is insulin resistance. 

Think of Type 2 diabetes as "insulin resistance." Imagine your body is like a town:

• Glucose (cars): This is the energy source for your body, like cars moving around town.

• Insulin (traffic cops): Insulin is like the traffic cops directing the cars (glucose) to where they need to go.

• Cells (houses): The cells in your body are like houses that need energy (glucose) to function.

Normally, insulin guides glucose into cells like traffic cops guiding cars. 

But sometimes, especially in people with “insulin resistance,” the cars get confused and no longer listen to the traffic cops. It's like, because there are so many traffic cops the cars don’t know which one to listen to. The cells are also sick of listening. Or there are so many cars (glucose), they begin to overpower the traffic cops. So, even though the insulin is trying to get glucose into the cells, no one is listening and chaos ensues.

So, diabetes is when the traffic cops (insulin) can't direct the cars (glucose) to the houses (cells), causing chaos.

“Insulin resistance” is the key problem in diabetes.

There are some ways to counteract this, which you can read about in the “how is diabetes treated” section.