What people refer to as Diabetes or Diabities is actually the short form of Diabetes Mellitus, a disease that occurs when there is an elevation of sugar blood level (commonly referred to as blood glucose level). Glucose is a form of energy that the body needs for it to function normally.

The common sources of glucose in humans is through food
1. Starchy foods (carbohydrates) such as rice, bread, and noodles
2. Actual glucose whether in simple glucose form or complex forms (such as fruit sugars, milk sugars, honey,) which are broken down into simple sugars in the body.

Once glucose is absorbed in through the intestines, it is distributed throughout the whole body. At the cellular level, a hormone called insulin is responsible for the entry of glucose into the cells for usage.  It is at this level where we see certain situations whereby there is a resistance to the effect of insulin (insulin resistance) giving rise to an increased sugar blood level.  Another diabetes cause is where there is inadequate or no production of insulin by the cells responsible for this, known as the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.

Treatment of diabities in principle is quite simple

1. Start off on a diet for diabetes – with emphasis on healthy living and calorie control. Control of diabetes and diet are closely related.  Diabetic treatment with drugs but without dietary control is not ideal.

2. Diabetic Drugs. Two major varieties are often described - One type to stimulate the release of insulin from the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, the other type to promote the movement of sugar into the cells.

3. Insulin therapy.

4. Management of complications of diabities (both prevention of these complications and treatment of complications of diabetes if and when they occur), for example, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, nerve complications, skin problems, etc.  More about this in another article.

Diabities Complications - Early detection and management is essential.

Natural Diabetes Cures - The Bitter Melon

Diabetes (or Diabities) mellitus is a worldwide phenomenon and the numbers of sufferers are growing steadily. It is estimated that by 2010 there will be about 210 million diabetics in this world. The cost of treating this large number of diabetics throughout the world is horrendous. The cost of diabetic treatment not only takes into account the cost of diabetic drugs to treat diabities mellitus directly, but one has also to calculate the costs of treatment of diabetes complication such as kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes. Researchers throughout the world are busy trying to discover new treatments for diabetes which are more effective.

China, with 62.5 million diabetics (equal to that of the United States, Japan and Europe combined), and which faces a doubling of this population of diabetics by 2025, is sending its researchers to collaborate with Australian researchers in trying to find if there is a new treatment for the diabetic disease in the common bitter melon.
Researchers have discovered not one, but 4 different bioactive compounds, which are noted to reduce blood sugar when fed to mice. These compounds increase the uptake of glucose into cells, and thus cause the fall in blood sugar.

China has traditionally relied on herbs,vegetables or plant extracts to manage a host of illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and gout. Unfortunately there have been no internationally accepted scientific standards of research for most Chinese medicines, whose practitioners have generally relied on treatments and values passed down from generation to generation, and treatments that have been seen to be effective over the generations, but not scientifically analyzed.

This joint study on the benefits of the bitter melon marks one of the few scientific measures to extract, analyze and research active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine to produce an acceptable Western drug for international use.