Diabetes, as a word, is derived from the ancient Greek : to pass through, to pass .

There are two main underlying disease conditions that cause tremendous amounts of urine to be made, and those are:

• Diabetes mellitus (mellitus means sweet) - in which excess sugar in the blood is filtered out by the kidneys, along with water- and a great deal of urine is made since the blood glucose levels remain high.
• Diabetes insipidus (insipidus means tasteless, bland) - in which the kidneys produce only very dilute urine, normal ability to concentrate urine is lost.

The history of medical diagnosis can be gleaned from how these conditions were named. Yes, tasting the urine was a routine diagnostic tool in past centuries. I certainly would not want to do it, but if I was trapped in an area without any technology and had the responsibility of caring for my fellow cast-aways, I know that tasting a drop of urine would be an accurate way, even today, to distinguish these conditions.

• In common usage in society, and in most of medicine - diabetes is used as a synonym for diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes insipidis is commonly spoke of as "insipidus" or "dee-eye" (D.I).

ONLINE MEDICAL DICTIONARY

• Provided by the Dept. of Medical Oncology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne © Copyright 1997-2007 - The CancerWEB Project.

• Definition:diabetes