Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

Sweet Urine: Type I and II Diabetes

When people were naming these diseases, all that doctors could distinguish was that patients had a lot of sugar in their urine and so they called it diabetes mellitus (sweet urine). And the patients had sugar in their urine because they had very high blood glucose levels.  But even though the symptoms were so similar, it turns out that these are two very different diseases. 

Type I Diabetes and Type II Diabetes

As you read in the previous article, Type I diabetes is caused when the pancreas can not make insulin ( or can't make enough). The result is that the cells of the body can't absorb glucose because there is nothing to trigger the insulin receptor. Type II diabetics on the other hand, can make insulin, but when it binds to the insulin receptor, the signal transduction pathway doesn't work normally.

Please watch this video  and answer the questions in the quiz on  the next page.