Diabetes - causes
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Definition
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Causes
Diabetes results when the body doesn't produce enough insulin
to maintain normal blood sugar levels or when cells don't respond
appropriately to insulin. People with type I diabetes mellitus
(insulin-dependent diabetes) produce little or no insulin at all. Although
about 6 percent of the United States
population has some form of diabetes, only about 10 percent of all
diabetics have type I disease. Most people who have type I diabetes
developed the disease before age 30.
Scientists believe that an environmental
factor--possibly a viral infection or a nutritional factor in childhood or
early adulthood--causes the immune system to destroy the insulin-producing
cells in the pancreas. Some genetic predisposition is most likely needed
for this to happen. Whatever the cause, in type I diabetes more than 90
percent of the insulin-producing cells (beta cells) of the pancreas are
permanently destroyed. The resulting insulin deficiency is severe, and to
survive, a person with type I diabetes must regularly inject insulin.
In type II diabetes mellitus (non-insulin-dependent
diabetes), the pancreas continues to manufacture insulin, sometimes even at
higher than normal levels. However, the body develops resistance to its
effects, resulting in a relative insulin deficiency. Type II diabetes may
occur in children and adolescents but usually begins after age 30 and becomes
progressively more common with age: About 15 percent of people over age 70
have type II diabetes. Obesity is a risk factor for type II diabetes; 80 to
90 percent of the people with this disease are obese. Certain racial and
cultural groups are at increased risk: Blacks and Hispanics have a twofold
to threefold increased risk of developing type II diabetes. Type II
diabetes also tends to run in families.
Other less common causes of diabetes are abnormally high
levels of corticosteroids, pregnancy (gestational diabetes), drugs, and
poisons that interfere with the production or effects of insulin, resulting
in high blood sugar levels.
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