Diabetes mellitus is a long-standing metabolic disease that is prevalent among millions of people around the globe. It is a metabolic disorder that happens when the body is unable to manage blood sugar levels effectively. The cause of diabetes is multifactorial but which hormone deficiency is most directly implicated in the development of diabetes mellitus and strongly relates to the incident and severity of the disease?
What is Diabetes Mellitus?
Diabetes mellitus or simply diabetes is a disease that affects the body’s ability to manage blood sugar or glucose. It occurs where the body either produces little or no insulin or where the body cannot properly utilize its own insulin. Insulin is a hormone that has the primary function of managing blood sugar levels and letting the cells in the body easily take in glucose so that it can be used as a source of energy.
Types of Diabetes
There are two primary types of diabetes:
Type 1 Diabetes
A disease that affects the auto-immunity system is type 1 diabetes wherein the body’s immune system targets and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. This lack of insulin production leads to high blood sugar levels, and such people need to take insulin injections to stay alive.
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Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 is more prevalent and the patient is typically diagnosed at an older age. However, it is more directly linked with insulin resistance whereby the customer’s cells do not respond properly to insulin. In time, patients’ pancreas fails to supply adequate insulin to cope with the resistance and this results in high blood sugar levels.
Hormone Deficiency and Diabetes
The Role of Insulin
The hormone that is implicated with diabetes is insulin which is produced by beta cells in the pancreas. Diabetes mellitus is a disease of the impaired ability of the body to produce insulin or inadequacy of the action of insulin as a transporter of glucose.
Insulin Deficiency and Type 1 Diabetes
In type 1 diabetes the pancreas’s immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. This therefore makes people with type 1 diabetes lack insulin in their bodies absolutely and hence, require to administer insulin from outside for survival.
Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
Most cases of Type 2 diabetes develop due to the failure to carry out proper insulin resistance. The cells of the body lose sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that helps regulate glucose to get into the cells. This in turn leads to a relative lack of insulin in the body this is because the pancreas cannot pump out insulin at the same rate. Possibly, insulin production could be reduced in a long-term manner.
Other Hormones and Diabetes
Glucagon
Whereas insulin helps to reduce high levels of blood sugar, there is another hormone called glucagon that increases the levels of sugar in the blood. Insulin is synthesized in the endocrine tissue collectively known as the pancreas in beta cells while glucagon is synthesized in alpha cells of the pancreas and serves to stimulate the liver to secrete new glucose into the bloodstream. Diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar levels, which may be caused by a lack of glycogen storage or the imbalance of insulin and glucagon.
Cortisol and Growth Hormone
Other hormones such as; growth hormone and cortisol play a role in the regulation of blood sugar levels. High levels of these hormones which are possibly observed in conditions such as Cushing syndrome can lead to insulin resistance and can therefore cause diabetes.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is hormones that are deficient especially insulin, and are therefore known to cause diabetes mellitus. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the deficiency of insulin because it is produced by the body due to the destruction of beta cells by the immune system while type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance and insufficient amount of insulin in the body. It is very essential to gain significant knowledge regarding the functions of hormones in diabetes in order to manage and treat this disease.