Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body cannot properly regulate blood glucose because it makes too little insulin or cannot use insulin effectively.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and usually appears in childhood or young adulthood. Type 2 diabetes, far more common, develops when tissues become resistant to insulin and the pancreas cannot compensate; it is closely tied to body weight, physical inactivity and genetics. Gestational diabetes arises during pregnancy. High blood glucose over years damages blood vessels and nerves, leading to peripheral neuropathy, kidney disease, eye disease and cardiovascular disease.

Diagnosis uses fasting glucose, an oral glucose tolerance test or hemoglobin A1c, which reflects average glucose over about three months. Management combines diet, activity, monitoring and medications such as metformin or insulin. The endocannabinoid system participates in appetite, fat storage and insulin sensitivity, and cannabinoids have been studied in animal models of diabetes and in small human studies of diabetic neuropathy, but the evidence is limited and no cannabinoid has an approved use for diabetes or its complications.