Diabetes is a common long-term health condition caused by too much glucose

in the blood. It is also known as diabetes mellitus. In the UK, diabetes affects
approximately 2.9 million people with an estimated 850,000 people who are
unaware they have the condition.

Diabetes is a condition where the amount of glucose in a person’s blood is too

high because their body is unable to process the glucose properly. This could
be for two reasons:

 the pancreas doesn’t produce any insulin, or not enough, to help

glucose enter the cells of the body
 the insulin that is produced does not work properly – this is known as
insulin resistance.
Explore the animation below to follow the physiology of how the body manages
glucose levels in the blood.