Diabetes - Important Facts 

• A fasting blood sugar  at or above 126 mg/dL or  a random blood sugar at or above 200 mg/dL  is diagnostic of diabetes, according to the official American Diabetes Association definition. 
• A fasting blood sugar of 100 to 125 mg/dL  or a random blood sugar between 140  to 199 mg/dL is diagnostic of prediabetes, according to this same definition. 
• Prediabetes occurs when  a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. 
• The name, diabetes mellitus, comes from  the Greek words for "to flow through" and "sweet." The Greek physicians used to diagnose  the condition by actually tasting  the urine. (That's dedication!) 
• Normally, a hormone called insulin pushes sugar from  the blood into  the body's cells where it can be used for fuel. The concentration  of sugar in  the blood remains within a fairly narrow range. If the body stops making insulin (type 1 diabetes), then adequate sugar doesn't get  into the cells. 
• Until June 23, 1997, type 1 diabetes was also called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). 
• Without insulin, muscle and fat begin to be burned for fuel (evidence  of this -- ketones -- shows up  in the urine). The person feels hungry all  the time, but loses weight  in spite of increased eating. Without replacement insulin,  the person would eventually starve to death. Meanwhile,  the concentration of sugar in the blood begins  to increase. When  the level reaches around 180 mg/dL, the sugar begins  to spill over into  the urine. This causes  the person to make more urine and then to get thirstier, creating an accelerating cycle. 
• The classic symptoms of type  1 diabetes are increased urination (polyuria), increased thirst (polydipsia), increased eating (polyphagia) and weight loss. Anyone with the classic symptoms should have a blood sugar test  as well as a urine test. 
• Occasionally people also report fatigue, blurred vision, vomiting, abdominal pain,  or frequent skin infections. 
• If  the disease remains undiagnosed, symptoms progress  to include labored breathing, coma, and death. 
• People who get type 1 diabetes were born with  a genetic predisposition  to it. Not everyone born with this predisposition gets diabetes, however.  In fact, if an identical twin has diabetes,  the other twin gets it only about half  the time. 
• Along  the way, some  of the predisposed individuals are exposed  to something in  the environment that triggers  the diabetes. This is usually a viral infection. The virus misleads the body's immune system into making antibodies against its own pancreas  cells that make insulin. (This is why type 1 diabetes is now also called immune-mediated diabetes.) The insulin-producing cells  of the pancreas are gradually destroyed over time. When 90%  of them have been destroyed,  the person suddenly begins  to develop symptoms. 
• Immune-mediated  or type 1 diabetes most often strikes young people, especially between  the ages of 5 and 7 (when viruses run  through the schools), or at the time of puberty (when so many hormones change). For this reason, it used to be called juvenile-onset diabetes. 
• About 0.4% of  the general public (or one out of 250) will eventually develop type 1 diabetes. 
• According to  the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, just over 175,000 children under age 20  in the United States have  diabetes.
• About 800,000 people  in the United States now  have type 1 diabetes. 
• About 30,000 people develop type  1 diabetes each year. 
• Type 2 diabetes is caused, not by the absence of insulin, but by insulin not working properly. It is much more frequent  in overweight adults over  the age of 45, but can occur at any age and weight.  There are often no symptoms. 
• The National Institutes of Health estimates that more than 7 million adults  in the United States have undiagnosed  type 2 diabetes.
• As obesity becomes more common among children,  the number of children  with prediabetes  and with type 2 diabetes has been rising dramatically  in recent years