If prediabetes is not controlled or reversed, the next logical step is diabetes. This occurs when the body's blood glucose level reads even higher than it did before. Our amazing body has three sources of energy: carbohydrates, fat and protein.  Sugar is a carbohydrate. There are a variety of sugars in nature, but glucose, the sugar that is #1 in the body, provides a source of instant energy so that muscles can move and essential chemical reactions can take place. Table sugar, or sucrose, is really two different kinds of sugar--glucose and fructose--bonded together. Fructose is the type of sugar found in fruits and vegetables. Because fructose is sweeter than glucose, sucrose, a combination  of fructose and glucose, is sweeter than glucose alone. 

Ever witness someone drinking an abnormal amount of water? Ever witness someone  making frequent trips to the bathroom? Well, these are classic  signs of Diabetes. Amazingly, these are not the only symptoms brought on by diabetes. Another condition called diabetes insipidus causes the fluid in the body to enter and exit like a siphon as well.  With this condition, the urine does not smell sweet. This condition is an entirely different disease. It should not be confused with diabetes mellitus. Diabetes insipidus occurs when a hormone  that normally helps the kidneys prevent the loss of a lot of water in the body, fails to do so. It has absolutely nothing to do with diabetes.

When it comes to testing for diabetes, the standard definition of diabetes mellitus is excessive glucose in a blood sample. For a number of years, physicians set this level really high. The standard level for normal glucose was lowered in 1997 because too many people were experiencing complications of diabetes even though they did not have the disease by the then current standard.  The standard level was modified again in November 2003.

After many meetings and much discussion, the American Diabetes Association published the new standard for diagnosis, which includes any of the following three criteria:

• Casual plasma glucose
• Fasting plasma glucose
• Blood glucose

If a person were to test positive one time for diabetes, this is not enough to confirm an accurate diagnosis. Any one of the tests should be positive on another occasion  to make a diagnosis of diabetes.

  In order to tame this monster called diabetes, you need to know a little about the way the body normally handles glucose and what happens when things go side ways. A hormone called insulin finely controls the level of glucose in he blood. Hormones are a chemical substance made in one part of the body that travels through the bloodstream  to a distant part of the body to perform work. In the case of insulin, that work is to act like a key to gain entry into  fat, liver or muscle cells so that glucose can enter. If glucose can't  get inside the cells, there's no way  it's going to provide energy to the body.

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