What is Diabetic?
Susannah:Emilia, after all the diabetes test results came back, my doctor told me I am diabetic. What is diabetic exactly? The doctor gave me a brief explanation, but I guess I was so distracted with the horrible news that I didn’t quite grasped what he was telling me. I didn’t want to ask him again, for fear he might get upset with me.
Emilia:
Hello Susannah. I am sorry your test results are not what we were hoping for. I’ll be very happy to explain to you what diabetic means, but for future references, when at the doctor’s office, never hesitate to ask as many questions as you may feel necessary; your doctor will never think less of you because you do that. In fact, doctors like patients who show interest in knowing as much as possible about their diagnosis.
What is diabetic?
Being diabetic means that you have diabetes, in your case diabetes type 2, also known as diabetes mellitus, adult diabetes, or adult onset diabetes. To put it in simple words, your level of sugar in the blood is too high.
Glucose is the food for our organs and without it we will die quite fast. Our body keeps a normal level of sugar in the blood (glucose) of about 1 gram per liter of blood. When a person who doesn’t have diabetes eats, the level of blood sugar increases up to 1.25 grams per liter of blood and in about two hours it goes down again, back to normal. However, when a person with diabetes eats, the level of blood sugar can go up as much as to 1.80 grams per liter of blood and stays high for a much longer period of time.
Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus was described as a disease 10 years B.C. by Aulus Cornelius Celsus, considered one of the most 
important contributors to medicine and scientific thought during the Roman Empire. The term diabetes mellitus has a double linguist origin: diabetes comes from the Greek language and it means “coming out with strength”. Mellitus has its roots in the Latin language and it means “sweet as honey”. Based on these definitions you probably have guessed by now that a characteristic of the disease is heavy and sweet urination as a result of an excess of sugar, glucose.
The discovery of insulin
Twenty centuries later, Doctor Frederick Banting discovered a substance produced by the pancreas that was responsible for maintaining normal levels of glucose in the blood: insulin. Nowadays we know that the level of glucose goes up abnormally in the blood because either the pancreas is not producing enough insulin or because the amount is producing is not working properly in our body.
I hope this answers your question about what is diabetic. I have to go know but I’ll get back to you soon to talk a little more about what insulin is and its role in our body. In the meantime, take care of yourself.
Your Diabetes Coach
www.TheDiabetesClub.com
www.MediterraneanDietForTheHeart.com
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