- [voiceover] diabetes mellitusis a group of disorders that's caused by improperfunction of the hormone insulin, which is secreted by the pancreas. now, this results in disregulation of blood glucose levels in the body,
specifically resulting in hyperglycemia or high blood sugar, whichis the hallmark of diabetes. now, since diabetes isa group of disorders, this implies that there aremultiple different conditions
that can lead to diabetesmellitus, which is true. so let's break down diabetesinto three major types. type i, type ii, and a third categorywhich we'll just label as miscellaneous. now, before we dive intothese three types of diabetes, let's briefly review howthe hormone insulin works. in response to increasein blood glucose levels,
the pancreas produces and secretes a hormone known as insulininto the bloodstream. and this insulin acts oncells throughout the body to remove the glucose from the bloodstream by either taking it upto use it for energy or to store it in the form of glycogen. and as a result, the bloodglucose levels decrease. and these decreased blood glucose levels then serve as a feedback mechanism
to inhibit the pancreasfrom secreting more insulin. so you can see thatthere are two major steps in this insulin pathway. first, insulin must besecreted by the pancreas in response to this increasingblood glucose level. and second, the cells throughout the body must respond to the insulin in order to carry outits metabolic functions in order to lower the glucose levels.
now, this mechanism can be thought of as similar to that of a thermostat in an air conditioning within a home. when the temperature goes up, this is sensed by the thermostat, which then sends an electrical signal to turn on the air conditioner, which will then decrease the temperature. and as the temperature goes down,
this will inhibit the thermostat from continuously keepingthe air conditioner on. and this mechanism here is gonna become very important in just a minute as we differentiate the different types of diabetes mellitus. so let's go through each ofthese types individually. type i diabetes presentsmostly during childhood. and it's caused by agenetic predisposition
plus some sort of environmental trigger. exactly what this is isn't quite known. but the combination of these two results in an auto-immune disorder in which the immune system attacks the beta cells of the pancreas to prevent them from producing insulin. on the other hand, type ii diabetes typically, although not always,presents during adulthood.
and it's even more strongly associated with a genetic predisposition. but in type ii diabetes,instead of this unknown trigger, the genetic predisposition is accompanied with other predisposing conditions, such as obesity or hypertension. and this combination of factors results in an inability ofthese cells throughout the body to respond to insulin.
then although type i and type ii diabetes are the most common causesof diabetes mellitus, there are a couple otherimportant causes of the disease. and these include diabetescaused by medications, known as drug-induced diabetes. and drug-induced diabetesmost commonly occurs with a group of medications that are known as glucocorticoids, which are steroid medicationsmost frequently prescribed
to decrease inflammationthroughout the body, such as with conditionslike chronic asthma or crohn's disease. and the other miscellaneouscause of diabetes mellitus that's really important to mention is the diabetes that'sassociated with pregnancy, known as gestational diabetes. now, let's tie this all together to receive a better understanding
of how these different types of diabetes affect this underlying insulin pathway and result in diabetes mellitus. in type i diabetes,this auto-immune attack on the beta cells of the pancreas prevent the production and secretion of insulin into the blood. thus, type i diabetesinhibits this first step in the insulin pathway.
and since it decreasesthe production of insulin, it's referred to as an insulin deficiency. however, in type ii diabetesas well as drug-induced and gestational diabetes, the pancreas continues to secrete insulin. however, it's the cellsthroughout the body that are unable toadequately respond to it. so in a sense, these mechanismsinhibit the second step and this is known as insulin resistance,
which can be thought of as arelative insulin deficiency. so going back to this thermostat analogy, if either the thermostat orthe air conditioner is broken, the system as a whole doesn't work. the temperature inside the house is gonna continue to rise. similarly, in diabetesmellitus, it doesn't matter whether the underlying mechanismaffects this first step, such as with type i diabetes,
or the second step aswith type ii diabetes, drug-induced diabetes,and gestational diabetes. regardless, there's gonna beeither an insulin deficiency or a relative insulin deficiency. so this pathway will not work. and the body won't be ableto decrease glucose levels.
Diabetes Insipidus Pathophysiology,this results in anincrease level of glucose, which is known as hyperglycemia, which as i mentioned at the beginning,
is the hallmark findingin diabetes mellitus.
As you now know how to handle your condition, you happen to be much better ready to make your proper choices and changes in your life. Understand that these guidelines will only be related if you use as the majority of them as you possibly can, and therefore you ought to begin now to see timely effects.
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