Friday, July 4, 2008

What is the difference between diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus? Why are they both called diabetes

What is the difference between diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus? Why are they both called diabetes?
please help me to understand this condition better
Medicine - 3 Answers
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1 :
Diabetes mellitus is related with liver (insulin) and diabetes inspidus is related with kidney (fluid regulation in body).
2 :
The term diabetes has a somewhat convoluted derivation, but basically means a syphon, or (water) passing through. Both forms of diabetes involve excess urination. In diabetes mellitus, there is excess sugar in the urine and it tastes sweet, like honey. Hence the appellation, mellitus. Diabetes mellitus generally results from a disfunction of the islet cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Lack of insulin results in diabetes mellitus. Diabetes insipidus results in excessive urination and a great thirst due to a lack of ADH - antidiuretic hormone - produced in the pituitary gland at the base of the brain.
3 :
The word diabetes derives in a rather convoluted fashion from the Greek word for a siphon. It is used for conditions in which excessive amounts of urine are produced. Mellitus comes from the Latin word for honey, and refers to the sugary nature of the urine, as opposed to the urine in diabetes insipidus, which is, as you may have guessed, insipid. Diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus are two very different conditions. DM is essentially a rise in blood sugar levels, caused either by the failure of the pancreas to produce insulin or by the body's developing a resistance to the insulin it produces. The excess sugar spills into the urine, and this high concentration in the urine prevents the water being reabsorbed by the kidney. The origin of DI is in generally in the brain. The posterior portion of the pituitary gland, situated at the base of the brain, secretes a hormone which limits urine output by the kidney by encouraging reabsorption of fluid (antidiuretic hormone, ADH). When ADH secretion fails, for various reasons, the result is a lot of urine with no sugar in it. The same situation may arise if the kidney does not respond correctly to the circulating ADH (so-called nephrogenic diabetes insipidus).

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