PLTW Medical Detectives Practice Exam

Insulin helps regulate blood sugar by allowing glucose to enter cells. When the body can’t produce enough insulin, glucose stays elevated in the blood, which defines diabetes mellitus. This condition includes both cases where insulin production is minimal (type 1) and where insulin action is impaired with not enough effective insulin (type 2). The other options involve different systems—hypothyroidism affects thyroid hormone levels, anemia is about red blood cells or hemoglobin, and arthritis involves joint inflammation. So the disease described by insufficient insulin production is diabetes.