Sugar's Role in Diabetes Last revised on January 13, 2011 By
Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Diabetes mellitus is a common disorder marked by the elevation
of blood sugar. Diabetes develops most commonly because the
pancreas is injured and is unable to produce enough insulin
(type 1 diabetes) or because the body's tissues become resistant
to insulin, requiring more of it than the pancreas can produce
to keep the blood sugar normal (type 2 diabetes). Although the
majority of patients with type 1 diabetes develop this disease
in childhood or early adulthood and the majority of patients
with type 2 diabetes are well into adulthood when they develop
the disease, the terms juvenile-onset diabetes (for type 1) and
adult-onset diabetes (for type 2) have fallen out of favor.
Either type may occur at any age. In addition, the terms
insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent have also been
retired. Although insulin therapy is a typical approach to type
1 diabetes, either type of disease