Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ww (talk | contribs) at 15:33, 11 June 2004 (some clarity edits). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The term diabetes can mean any of several different diseases which usually involve excessive urination (polyuria) when untreated:

• the more common "sugar diabetes", diabetes mellitus where the amount of sugar (ie, glucose) in the blood is excessive
  • type 1 (formerly called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes)
  • type 2 (formerly called adult-onset, obesity-related, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes)
  • gestational diabetes (during pregnancy) as well as
  • many other types of non-transient hyperglycemia

In most medical contexts, the single word "diabetes" is almost always assumed to mean one of the forms of diabetes mellitus, all other sorts being far less common. Medical shorthand for these is "DM".

• or the less common "water diabetes", diabetes insipidus, where the body is incapable of concentrating urine, leading to increased urine production, fluid loss and thirst.

The current medical shorthand term for diabetes insipidus is "D.I."

The meanings of the descriptors mellitus and insipidus refer to the tastes of the urine in the two conditions (sweet and tasteless, respectively) and date back to the days of gustatory urinalysis ("pisse prophecy").

In common modern usage, "diabetes" always refers to diabetes mellitus.

• Disambiguation pages