Diabetes: History and Background

Paper Summary:

This paper acknowledges that diabetes is a serious chronic, life-long disease that is one of the leading causes of death and disability in North America. The paper also relates that there are many long-term complications that can stem from this disease. The paper then goes on to discuss the long history of diabetes and the complications in treatment, the current definition of diabetes as a disorder of metabolism, along with the prevalence and distribution of the disorder between the types.

From the Paper:

"Diabetes is a disorder of the metabolism. Our body breaks down food in glucose, a form of sugar, which is carried in the bloodstream and taken to cells in order to provide energy for them. In order for glucose to pass from the blood into the cells, insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, must be present. There are three types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes, also called insulin-dependent or juvenile-onset; type 2 diabetes, also called noninsulin-dependent or adult onset; and gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease as 'the immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas and destroys them. The pancreas than produces little or no insulin' (Matthews, 4). In this type of diabetes the symptoms appear suddenly and intensely. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas is producing enough insulin, but the body cannot use the insulin effectively. After some time, the production of insulin decreases. Hence this type of diabetes develops gradually, over several years. Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy, and usually disappears after delivery, although the mother is at an increased risk of getting type 2 diabetes later in the life."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Matthews, Dawn D., ed. Diabetes Sourcebook, third edition. Detroit: Onmigraphics, 2003
• Bliss, Michael The Discovery of Insulin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000
• Feudtner, Chris Bittersweet: Diabetes, Insulin and the Transformation of Illness. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003
• Zimmet, Paul and Shaw, Jonathan "Diabetes on six condiments - ethnic and geographical differences: views on the future". Diabetes: From Research to Diagnosis and Treatment. Eds. Itamar Raz, Jay S. Skyler and Eleazar Shafrir. London: Martin Dunitz, 2003, 1-10
• Dubnov, Gal, Adler, Dorit, Hershkop Karen and Berry, Elliot, M. "Obesity-induced diabetes mellitus: a nutritional disease with life-style treatments". Diabetes: From Research to Diagnosis and Treatment. Eds. Itamar Raz, Jay S. Skyler and Eleazar Shafrir. London: Martin Dunitz, 2003, 315-330.

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