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1 1 What Is Diabetes? Diabetes is formally called diabetes mellitus to distinguish it from ­diabetes insipidus, which is an unrelated disorder. Diabetes mellitus is not a single disease but refers to a group of related metabolic disorders that cannot be cured but can be effectively managed. All types of diabetes result in too much glucose (sugar) in the blood. This condition occurs from failure to produce any insulin, failure to produce adequate amounts of insulin, or failure of cells in the body to respond adequately to insulin. Insulin is the primary hormone that regulates glucose in the blood. Over time, hypergly- cemia, an abnormally high level of blood glucose, also called high blood sugar, can damage many parts of the body, including the kidneys, heart, blood vessels, eyes, skin, feet, and nervous system. Left untreated, diabetes can cause fatal complications. Even though all types of diabetes result in high blood sugar levels, different types of diabetes have different causes and different treatments. The two major types of diabetes are designated type 1 and type 2. Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1. Type 2 accounts for about 95 percent of people with the disorder. A condition called prediabetes often develops before type 2 diabetes and is a predictor for developing the disorder. Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that can develop during pregnancy, but, unlike the other types of diabetes, it is not a permanent condition. Researchers have also identified several rare forms of diabetes, including latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) monogenic