What is Diabetes?

A lot of people don't know what is diabetes and how it is caused.
There are billions of cells in our body. Each cell needs food to exist.
The cell's food is the glucose, and glucose is actually sugar.
Now imagine that each cell has a gate and there is a guard in the gate.
Only this guard can allow the glucose enter the cell.
In our body this guard is the insulin. The insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas.

Well, I'm getting to that.
When we have diabetes, either our body does not produce enough insulin or the insulin does not work properly.
The glucose cannot enter the cells and it accumulates in our blood. This high amount of glucose in the blood is called high blood sugar or hyperglycemia.

When the blood has glucose above its normal level, the sugar passes into the urine.
The kidneys transfer extra water to dilute those large amounts of sugar.
The result is that people with diabetes have the need to urinate frequently and their urine contains high level of sugar. They get very thirsty and need to drink a lot, and then they have to urinate again.

That's why the name is Diabetes Mellitus.
Diabetes in Greek is a fountain or siphon, because the patients drink a lot of water, and the water gets directly to the urine.
Mellitus in Latin is "sweet like honey", because in Middle Ages the physicians reported that the sweet urine of diabetic people attracted insects and flies.