What is diabetes mellitus and what are the symptoms?
Think about a car that works only if it has gasoline available as a source of energy. Without gasoline, the car will not start. Gasoline is “refined” from crude oil before it can be used as the energy source for the motor. Living animals also require energy to function. More specifically, each living cell that makes up an individual has energy requirements. For animals, ingested food is analogous to crude oil. Ingested food must be “refined” to a usable energy source. For virtually every animal, ingested food is converted (refined) to sugar (glucose), which, in turn, is the energy source for all cells. Because cells in the body tend to function continuously and do not store their own energy supply, energy (sugar) must be continuously available. Therefore sugar continuously circulates throughout the body as a component of normal blood. In this sense, sugar in the blood stream is an energy reservoir (a gas tank) for any cell in need. If your car has a full tank of gasoline and a working
