Last week’s column outlined how type 2 diabetes develops and causes harm: the liver produces too much sugar, the muscle, liver and fat cells poorly absorb sugar because they are less responsive to insulin and the insulin producing beta-cells of the pancreas eventually burn out.

At Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, the chief of emergency medicine, Dr. Marc Afilalo always emphasized the importance of knowing the pathophysiology of diseases. ‘Pathophysiology’ refers to the abnormal physical processes that cause disease: in short, how things work.