Diabetes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Diabetes - Essay Example Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body. The pancreas, an exocrine gland automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into the cells. In diabetes, the blood glucose level increases beyond the optimum level which results in a cascade of pathologies in the body. The blood glucose level is normally controlled by the hormone Insulin secreted from the Pancreas. Diabetes has been broadly classified into two categories: Diabetes Type I & II. In Type I diabetes, the body is unable to synthesize enough Insulin hormone and in Type II diabetes, which is more common in occurrence than the former, the body either does not produce enough Insulin or is unable to properly utilize the available Insulin There is a third type known as gestational diabetes which occurs during pregnancy in women. Pancreas is a large elongated exocrine gland located behind the stomach and secretes pancreatic juice as well as insulin. Pancreatic juice plays an important role in the digestion of food while the insulin controls the glucose levels of the body. The discovery of insulin was a dramatic event in the history of medicine (Kahn C.R.& Sechter Yoram). In 1869, Paul Langerhans, a German medical student discovered that the pancreas contains two distinct groups of cells. The acinar cells secrete the digestive enzymes while cells clustered in islets had a secondary function. A hint to the functioning of these islets, which were later labeled as ‘Islets of Langerhans’ became somewhat clear when Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering (1889) showed that dogs in whom pancreas was removed suffered from a syndrome similar to diabetes mellitus in man (Kahn C.R.& Sechter Yoram). Banting and Best, two Canadians were successful in extracting insulin from the pancreas in 1922 and treating a patient successfully. The ß cells of pancreatic islets synthesize insulin from a precursor molecule called proinsulin which is