The food that is consumed by a person is broken down into glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar, which is converted into energy by the cells in the body. However, this process requires a hormonal catalyst called insulin. Unfortunately, at times, the pancreas which makes insulin is unable to produce the optimal amount required by the body and the sugar is not converted into energy. This extra sugar starts increasing in the blood and the condition is set for diabetes.

Simple sugar or glucose provides the body with all its energy requirements. But insulin is needed for the conversion of glucose into energy. However, the entire process becomes defunct when adequate amount of insulin is not produced by the pancreas. There are times when the body is unable to use the insulin which has already been produced by the pancreas.

The main factor responsible for the way in which insulin either works or does not work in a person’s body is whether there is extra fat tissue in the person’s body. If a person is obese, then the extra fat which is present in his body develops a resistance to the activity of insulin upon the cells.

This condition can be reversed if the person maintains an exercise regime. As it has been proved that insulin resistance is hereditary and runs in the family, hence it can be inferred that genes are partly responsible for this condition. People with insulin resistance and high blood glucose usually put on weight near the waist.

Insulin resistance and pre-diabetes usually have no symptoms. It is possible for a person to suffer from these two conditions for years without noticing anything or any signs of diabetes. However, on several occasions, a severe form of insulin resistance manifests itself as dark patches on the nape of his neck, around the neck, elbows, knuckles, knees and armpits. It is called the contrition of acanthosis nigricans. People suffering from moderate to mild level of resistance to insulin may display an extraordinary phenomenon of having both high insulin level of blood glucose and high blood pressure together.

The people who are most susceptible to this condition are people having a family history of diabetes, low HDL cholesterol and high triglycerides, high blood pressure, history of gestational diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy or mothers who have given birth to babies weighing more than 4 kgs, minority group background.

A fasting glucose test or a glucose tolerance test can detect a diabetic condition or a pre-diabetic condition to a fairly accurate extent. However, these tests show the presence of insulin resistance in an indirect way. A test called the euglycemic clamp is a more dependable test for the detection of insulin resistance.

Diabetes can be of three kinds. The type1 diabetes, the type 2 diabetes and the gestational diabetes. The causes of diabetes in these three vary moderately. Let us look into their causes in detail.

The first type, that is the type 1 diabetes is said to be caused when the cells in one’s pancreas tend to get damaged, which causes it to have great insulin deficiency. This is believed to be a result of the so called autoimmune reaction, when your body destroys the cells itself.

This reaction may be caused due to bacterial infections, exposure to chemicals that are food borne, reaction of certain viruses and intake of cow’s milk during young infancy. However, these type 1 diabetes causes are just hypotheses, and not yet medically proved as such.

The next type of diabetes, that is the type 2 diabetes may be caused because of insulin resistance (failure of certain cells in the body to react to insulin), which causes over production of insulin, thus exhausting the pancreatic insulin producing cells. The type 2 diabetes causes may also include lack of sufficient insulin in the body or manufacture of inefficient insulin. These are usually caused with the increase in one’s age, too much of physical inactivity, or obesity.

Causes of gestational diabetes are not very well known. However, it is thought to be caused when during pregnancy the production of certain hormones blocks the functioning of insulin. What causes diabetes in this case is incapability of the mother’s body in producing enough of extra insulin to counteract this effect.

It is usually noticed that when the mother is over thirty five years of age, is obese, has had a stillbirth in her late pregnancy previously, or had given birth to an abnormal baby or a large baby this type of diabetes sets in.

One the most widespread causes of diabetes, that is common for all three types of diabetes is the patients hereditary.

In type 1 diabetes if both the parents have diabetes, then there are high chances of the children carrying the disease as well. Hereditary also acts as a diabetes cause in twin children, when one child has type 1 diabetes. The chances of the other child carrying the disease increases in this case by up to 40-50%.

It is said that if both the parents suffer from type 2 diabetes then it is almost certain that all their children will suffer from diabetes. Also, in case of twin children, if one of the twins suffers from type 2 diabetes, then almost certainly the other child will also carry the disease.

Hereditary is also a major cause of the gestational diabetes, when the parents suffer from it. What causes diabetes is the fact that the offspring may carry the problem in his or her genes.