Diabetes Mellitus …….a brief introduction.

An elderly relative of mine asked me: “‘V’ has diabetes it seems. He is only 9 years. Can anyone get diabetes at such a young age? Anything can happen in this ‘Kaliyuga’.” She was surprised by the fact that even children could get diabetes. It was difficult to convince her that childhood diabetes is not a new disease but, people are more aware of it these days. Prior to the discovery of insulin in 1920s children with diabetes did not live for longer than 6 months from the onset of symptoms. Thanks to Banting and his team at the University of Toronto for this amazing discovery which has changed the lives of millions of diabetic patients. Diabetic patients these days can lead a reasonably normal life provided they stick to their diet and insulin regimen.

The word ‘diabetes mellitus’ stands for ‘sweet urine’. Commonly people just say ‘diabetes’. Diabetes is a condition that causes high sugars in our blood. This happens due to lack of or resistance to insulin, a hormone required for transport of glucose from blood into different parts of our body. There are 4 types of diabetes described in the literature:

Type I – Juvenile Diabetes or Insulin Dependent Diabetes. In this blog we are going to talk mainly about this diabetes which is seen in children. This is due to lack of insulin and insulin injection is the treatment for this.

Type II- Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes. This is the adult diabetes which everyone would know about. It is usually seen in relation to obesity in children (rare). During the initial stages this type of diabetes can be managed with lifestyle modification (diet and exercise). Some times these patients need tablets or insulin to control their diabetes.

Type III- It is the diabetes associated with certain conditions such as ‘cystic fibrosis’. We are not going into details of this type in this blog.

Type IV- ‘Gestational Diabetes’. It is the diabetes which some women get during pregnancy. It is different from all other types.


Details about type I diabetes will continue in the next post.