Alex these days feels exhausted without doing any work. He has got infections. He gets hungry and thirsty easily. He goes to the washroom every now and then. What do you diagnose?
A. Goitre
B. Cretinism
C. Myxedema
D. Diabetes Mellitus

Hint: Hormones are the chemical messengers secreted by the endocrine glands in the blood that accelerate or inhibit specific physiological processes. The deficiency or over secretion of these hormones in the body cause several disorders like goitre, cretinism, myxedema and diabetes mellitus.

Complete answer: Insulin is the hormone secreted by beta cells in pancreas on stimulation by a rise in blood-glucose level such as after a meal. It helps in maintaining the blood sugar level.
The deficiency of insulin causes diabetes mellitus. Such patients cannot use or store glucose. Thus glucose accumulates in the blood from where it is secreted by the kidneys in urine. Glucose increases osmotic pressure of urine, causing loss of water from the body in urine. This produces excessive thirst.
Degradation of fats increases, producing ketone bodies. Blood cholesterol rises. Breakdown of proteins also increases causing wasting of body tissues. The healing power of the body is impaired and injuries may change into gangrenes.
The diabetic person has blurred vision and is weak, tired, nauseated and underweight.
In extreme cases, patients may pass into coma and die. Administration of insulin gives relief by lowering blood glucose level. Diabetes caused by insufficient insulin production is called insulin-dependent diabetes.
So, the correct answer is “Option D”.

Note: If the pancreas stops working properly and does not release enough insulin in the body then the blood glucose level increases and it leads to type-1 diabetes in the person. Another type is type-2 diabetes in which the pancreas releases enough insulin but the cells in the body are not able to utilize that insulin properly.