To understand diabetes you must know how your body works. Your pancreas has some cells (beta cells) that produce insulin. Insulin is use to get the glucose in your blood inside your cells and thus keeping your blood sugar (glicemia) at normal levels.

There are several types of diabetes, the two main types are diabetes mellitus 1 (DM1) and DM2. DM1 is an autoimmune disorder in which your own body produces antibodies that destroy your pancreas (it`s like your body going against itself). Thus if your pancreas is destroy you won`t produce insulin and your blood sugar will be high. DM1 occurs especially in young people.

DM2 is caracterize by insulin resistance, this means that your pancreas produces normal amounts of insulin (well in some people it can be diminish or when the deseases progreses you can produce less insulin). The problem is that your body is resistant to the insulin you produce, it can`t act properly, and so glucose can`t get inside your cells. DM2 occurs in adults and the incidence increases with age (up to 20% of old people are diabetic). Also DM2 pacientes tend to be overweight .

This is a very basic explanation on the patofisiology of diabetes. The main symptoms are:

DM1

Abnormal thirst and a dry mouth

Frequent urination

Extreme tiredness/lack of energy

Sudden weight loss

Slow-healing wounds

Recurrent infections

Blurred vision

DM2

The same symptoms that are listed above can also affect people with type 2 diabetes, but they are usually less obvious. The onset of type 2 diabetes is gradual and therefore hard to detect. Indeed, some people with type 2 diabetes show no obvious symptoms early on. These people are often diagnosed several years later, when various complications are already present.