Diabetes is a hormonal disorder

Diabetes is a chronic disease linked to insulin production and high blood sugar

Diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease caused by a lack of, or problems processing, the hormone insulin, leading to persistently high blood sugar. Around 90 to 95% of cases are Type 2 (chronic and caused by factors like diet and environment). The remainder are Type 1 diabetes (an autoimmune disorder).

Type 1 diabetes is an inherent autoimmune disorder inhibiting insulin production

Diabetes causes the body to attack insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, causing a shortage or lack of insulin. This prevents the body from accessing and storing blood sugar—the brain and muscles' primary energy source. It's unclear what causes Type 1 diabetes, an incurable yet manageable chronic condition as of 2024.

Diabetes 101: Insulin deficiency leads to high glucose levels in the blood

Glucose, the brain's preferred energy source, enters the bloodstream when the body breaks down consumed carbohydrates. To manage this increase in readily available energy, the body releases the hormone insulin, which allows glucose to enter and fuel our cells. Without insulin, glucose remains in the blood, causing health issues.

Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar by helping absorb it into cells

Blood sugar levels increase after a meal when the body starts turning food into usable fuel—sugars, proteins, and more—which are absorbed into the bloodstream through the intestines. Blood sugar levels rise, releasing insulin, and letting sugar in the blood be absorbed into hungry cells, thereby dropping blood sugar levels.

Gestational diabetes occurs when the body can't produce insulin during pregnancy

Globally, pregnant people are increasingly at risk to develop gestational diabetes due to rising maternal ages and obesity rates. The condition is associated with heavier fetal weight, congenital abnormalities, and perinatal mortality, which includes stillbirths and deaths of babies younger than 7 days old.

People with schizophrenia have triple the risk of developing diabetes

It remains contentious if something inherent about the disease or antipsychotics' side effects (weight gain) are mostly to blame. Some newly diagnosed schizophrenia patients already have insulin resistance, raising questions about if patients' brains are getting enough energy from glucose, and if dietary changes—like a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, moderate-protein diet—may help alleviate symptoms.

The pancreas releases digestive enzymes and regulates blood sugar

The pancreas weighs about the same as a deck of cards and is smaller than the average adult human hand. This lopsided glandular organ controls blood sugar levels through insulin production and helps the body digest food by creating a neutralizing tonic filled with digestive enzymes.

Understanding insulin

Scientists Daniel and Kelly talk with researcher Dr. Katrine Whiteson about diabetes, the history of insulin production, and Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff—an essential member of the team who discovered that bacteria could be induced to produce insulin. Listen to discover interesting facts about the life-saving medicine and how it works in the human body.

GLP-1 drugs, first used to manage diabetes, were derived from Gila monster saliva

Scientists studying the barely-there feeding frequency of the Gila monster found its saliva had a hormone regulating blood sugar and appetite. Further research revealed this hormone resembled a human one known as GLP-1, giving rise to the modern wave of diabetes and weight-management drugs.

Addictive drugs can cause dopamine levels to become ten times higher than normal

Now recognized as a physiological brain disease, addiction rewires the brain's reward system to make drugs feel necessary and weaken self-control by dulling the relative effects of natural rewards like food and social connection.

Our ancient fight-or-flight response may contribute to modern ailments

Many common modern diseases humans struggle with may in fact have their origins in our ancient fight-or-flight stress response. Long-term effects of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline—in this case, triggered by things like workplace stressors—can wreak havoc on the delicate internal balance of our organ systems.

SAD disrupts melatonin secretion, producing it longer in the morning

The hormone is secreted from the pineal gland in the brain and is key to the timing of sleep. However, the substance does not generate sleep itself. With seasonal affective disorder, the body misperceives the photoperiod—the time with light—and the cycle of sleeping and waking gets off-phase, leading to issues with circadian rhythms.

How the body produces its own opioids

Opioids act on the body's own opioid receptor system. The endogenous opioid system comprises four molecule receptor types found throughout the body. When activated, these receptor types trigger the release of dopamine and suppression of noradrenaline, neurotransmitters, respectively, associated with reward and alertness. This opioid system helps regulate emotions, and its disruption is linked to neuropsychiatric conditions, including depression, PTSD, and Alzheimer's disease.

Blood Pressure and Diabetes

New meta-analysis shows blood pressure reductions with ACE inhibitors and ARBs are associated with a lower diabetes risk, but other types of antihypertensive agents have the opposite effect.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

How meal timing factors into health outcomes

The world is trending toward weight gain, a development that comes with a corresponding rise in risk for health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease. This article explores how meal timing has become a factor in nutrition and weight maintenance.

Plant hormones and growth regulators guide growth stages and responses in plants

Plants naturally produce hormones like auxin and gibberellins, while humans apply synthetic or extracted growth regulators to control plant development. These substances influence processes like flowering, root growth, dormancy, and ripening—even in very small doses.

Why are women more likely to suffer autoimmune diseases than men?

A majority of Americans with autoimmune diseases have more than one X chromosome, a typical marker of the female biological sex, according to a study published in February of 2024. During fetal development, cells side with one X chromosome over the other, preventing the overproduction of X-chromosome-specific proteins and shutting down the twin chromosome. This article explores how this X-chromosome inactivation can lead to autoimmune disorders by generating antibodies to the body's own tissues.

Artificial sweeteners may disrupt gut health

Some research suggests that certain sweeteners can throw off the balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut and shift the composition of the microbiome. Such changes, depending on an individual's specific gut flora and levels of sweetener consumption, could potentially affect metabolism and glucose tolerance or lead to bloating and diarrhea.

Why we should care about renaming the hormonal disorder PCOS to PMOS

The new name, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, nods to the hormonal disruptions that cause this condition, which affects roughly one in eight women. People with PMOS may have symptoms including irregular periods, trouble conceiving, weight gain, acne, undesired hair growth, and more. The earlier name, polycystic ovary syndrome, was a misnomer because women with the condition don't have cysts in their ovaries. Rather, they have masses that are actually immature follicles. World health experts think the condition often goes undiagnosed.

Bipolar disorder, which is characterized by extreme mood swings, affects nearly 3% of the US population

There are two types of this disorder. Bipolar 1 features a significant manic episode—abnormally elevated mood and frantic energy—followed by repeated depression, while Bipolar 2 vacillates between depressive episodes and hypomania, a milder form of mania, but not a full mania. Listen to this podcast as experts explain the condition.

Certain medications that affect blood flow or mood boost the risk of heatstroke

Drugs that narrow blood vessels, beta blockers that regulate blood pressure, diuretics, antidepressants, and antipsychotics can all affect the body's ability to regulate its internal body temperature, and so individuals taking these medications need to take special care in extreme heat and when exercising in hot conditions.

Modern pregnancy tests detect a specific hormone in a woman's urine or blood

They pick up human chorionic gonadotropin, in either blood or urine. The hormone is produced by a woman's reproductive tissues during pregnancy.

About two-thirds of humans lose their ability to produce lactase after weaning

Lactase is an enzyme that digests lactose—a sugar in milk and dairy products. While genetics strongly determines lactase persistence, factors like famine, disease exposure, and gut bacteria also influence symptoms and evolution.

Gender-affirming hormone therapy cues changes similar to puberty

When HRT is part of gender affirmation care, people receive regular doses of estrogen or testosterone to alter hormone levels to more closely align with those of cis individuals of that biological sex. HRT may affect voice pitch, body hair, bone density, and more. Many of those changes are not reversible with the cessation of therapy, though the effects may diminish.

How metabolism, when cells convert molecules into energy, works

Metabolism is when a cell’s internal network of chemical reactions breaks down food molecules and transforms them into pieces of the cell itself. Sometimes, cells build replacements for worn-out parts. Other times, they build energy molecules that power the cell’s activities.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Poison ivy can cause rashes year-round since all parts of the plant contain urushiol, the oil that triggers our allergic response.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.