Spotlight On Diabetes

Diabetes, the fifth leading killer in developed countries, is a disease in which the body's failure to regulate glucose, or blood sugar, can lead to serious and even fatal complications.
Until very recently, the regulation of glucose - how much sugar is present in a person's blood , how much is taken up by cells for fuel, and how much is released from energy stores - was regarded as a conversation between a few key players: the pancreas, the liver, muscle and fat.
Now, however the party is proving to be much louder and more complex than anyone had shown before. Focusing on the cross-talk between more different organs,cells and molecules represents a "very important change in our paradigm" for understanding how the body handles glucose, said Dr C Ronald Kahn,a diabetes researcher and professor at Harvard Medical School.
The defining feature of diabetes is elevated blood sugar, But the reasons for abnormal sugar seem to "differ tremendously from person to person" said Dr Robert A Rizza, a professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Understanding exactly what signals are evolved, he said, raises the hope of "providing the right care for each person each day, rather than giving everyone the same drug."