What is diabetes, really?

Diabetes (or more formally, diabetes mellitus) is a disease where the body is unable to produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps the body use carbohydrates for energy.  That's the sweetener on your child's cereal, fruits, vegetables, starches and even milk. Carbohydrates are broken down to make sugar (glucose). Those sugars produce the energy we need for our daily activities-everything from breathing and thinking to active exercise. 

Insulin is like a key that opens the door for the glucose to enter the cells in our body. Once the glucose enters the cell it can be used for energy. When insulin is absent or our body is not responding to it, then glucose cannot enter the cells which causes the blood sugar levels to rise. As our blood sugar levels rise above 200 mg/dL then we start to excrete the sugar (glucose) in our urine.