The Causes of Diabetes.

I briefly mentioned the causes of diabetes while discussing 'Types of Diabetes' and if you go there you will find the quick description. However, after receiving a number of requests for more information on this subject I thought I had better come up with a separate section dealing with the topic. So here it is........

Lets start by dispelling a myth - eating sugar does NOT cause 'sugar diabetes' - if only it was that simple! High blood sugars are the end result, not the initial cause.

The general conception is of two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2, but in fact diabetes mellitus is actually a term for a whole group of metabolic disorders. The common denominator is high blood glucose levels because of either too little insulin or to much insulin (yip, we aim to confuse!!!), which leads to possible organ damage.

As I have stated once, twice, or even thrice before, nothing to do with diabetes is ever simple.

If you do not believe me check out-
Table 1—Etiologic classification of diabetes mellitus. on The American Diabetes Association website.

It is from the Report of the Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus.

For the medically inclined the full original article may be viewed here. (will load the ADA page in a new window.)

Dealing specifically with all the variants on the chart is definitely beyond the scope of this website so I will concentrate on the more common ones.

The page on Trans Fatty Acids is undoubtedly going to cause contention, however the connection is becoming obvious and we should be aware of it and thereby able to make up our own minds about this issue.

Causes of Diabetes Type 1.
Causes of Diabetes Type 2.
Causes of Secondary Diabetes.
Trans Fatty Acids.