Causes of Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic and endocrine disease. Also, diabetes is a generic name as diabetes is further classified into types. There is no one particular cause for diabetes. The cause of diabetes depends on the type of diabetes one has.

Type 1 Diabetes mellitus or Juvenile diabetes or Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM): In this type of diabetes the beta cells of the pancreas that are mainly responsible to produce insulin are destroyed. These cells could have been destroyed by the immune system of the body or some specific infections or some pancreatic illness or also due to exposure to particular food-borne chemical toxins. This damage affects the insulin production in the body. In other words, due to this damage, there is insufficient or completely no insulin production (this is the worst scenario).

Type 2 Diabetes mellitus or Non-Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM): In this type of diabetes the cells do not respond properly to insulin which is responsible to bring sugar in the blood to the cells. It could also be that the insulin produced itself may be abnormal and hence may not work properly. Another cause could also be that there simply is an insufficiency of insulin in the body.

Gestational Diabetes: This form of diabetes occurs only in women. It also occurs when a woman is pregnant. This form of diabetes generally occurs in the last few stages of pregnancy where the baby has got a form and is developing further. This may happen because of the enzymes produces by the placenta which may interfere with the influence of insulin on the mother's body.

Diabetes Insipidus: This is another form of diabetes where the cause of the disease is not insulin but another hormone called antidiuretic hormone (ADH). Due to this the kidneys produce large amounts of very dilute urine, or in other words the kidneys simply lose their ability to concentrate urine which is essential for reabsorbing sugar and salts in to the body.

1. Central diabetes Insipidus: When a stroke, tumor or neurosurgery damages the pituitary gland, the feeling of thirst is completely lost.

2. Nephrogenic diabetes Insipidus: In this type of diabetes the kidneys fail to respond to a certain hormone called ADH due to which the kidneys are not able to concentrate the urine.

3. Dispogenic diabetes insipidus: In this type of diabetes the defect or damage in the thirst mechanism of a person makes him/her feel more thirsty due to which large amounts of fluids are ingested resulting in the suppression of ADH hormone. And hence, the kidneys are not able to concentrate the urine.

4. Gestational diabetes insipidus: As the name suggests this form of diabetes again occurs in pregnant woman only. The main cause is that the enzyme produced by the placenta breaks down the ADH. In some extremely rare cases of this form of diabetes the cause is due to an abnormality in the thirst mechanism.