Another worry confronting the Indian health authorities is the relatively young age at which diabetes is being diagnosed in many patients. A study of complications in more than 3000 diabetics by the Diabetes Research Centre in Chennai showed that many had suffered eye, nerve or other tissue damage by the time diagnosis was made. Other experts say that more efficient food production says that many Indians are at present better nourished than at any point in the last century. Diabetes occurs when the body can no longer produce enough of the hormone insulin to properly regulate the levels of sugar in the bloodstream. Type I diabetes, often referred to as juvenile diabetes, happens when the cells in the pancreas which produce insulin are destroyed.
Patients require daily insulin injections, and a carefully controlled diet, for life.
The more common variety, type II diabetes, generally happens later in life, and happens because the cells of the body become less responsive to the regulatory effects of insulin. This, coupled with a tendency to produce less insulin overall, again leads to levels of glucose sugar in the bloodstream becoming too high, eventually causing tissue damage. Some type II diabetics can control the problem with diet restrictions and exercise, but many also need extra insulin in the form of tablets or injections. In the US, one in ten adults is thought to suffer from diabetes.