The pancreas is an endocrine gland, attached to the gastrointestinal tract. The pancreas produces insulin, the hormone which allows the body to use and store glucose; and which signals muscle, fat, and liver cells to absorb glucose, to make energy. When the pancreas fails to produce sufficient insulin, the patient develops high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and diabetes.

Diabetes is considered an endocrine disease because it involves the failure of an endocrine organ, an autoimmune disease because the immune system attacks the pancreas, and an inflammatory disease because diabetes increases inflammatory activity throughout the body.

The characterization of diabetes as a chronic autoimmune disease or a chronic inflammatory disease raises the question of what is causing the immune system to attack and what is causing the inflammation—it’s infection! Diabetes is caused by immortal infections, parasites, and viruses, which inhabit the gastrointestinal tract and infect the pancreas. The pathogens and the immune system attack, in the pancreas, damages cell function, impairs the ability of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin, and creates inflammation.