Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder in which the body’s ability to produce or respond to insulin is impaired, resulting in elevated blood glucose (blood sugar) levels.
The medical term for high blood glucose levels is hyperglycemia.
Diabetes mellitus comes from the Greek word “diabetes” meaning to pass through, and the Latin word “mellitus” meaning sweet.
This makes sense as sweet glucose ‘passes through’ the body and into the urine in diabetes mellitus.
Diabetes mellitus can be classified into 2 main types:
Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
This lecture will focus on type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.
As a result, the pancreas produces little to no insulin and blood glucose levels will increase.
Although type 1 diabetes typically develops in younger age groups (peak age of diagnosis is approximately 13 years old), adults can also develop type 1 diabetes later in life.
Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes, making up only 8% of diabetes diagnoses.
