People of all ages can develop type 1 diabetes. If you have type 1 diabetes, your pancreas doesn’t make insulin or makes very little insulin. Insulin helps blood sugar enter the cells in your body for use as energy. Without insulin, blood sugar can’t get into cells and builds up in the bloodstream.
High blood sugar is damaging to the body and causes many of the symptoms and complications of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes was once called insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes. It usually develops in children, teens, and young adults, but it can happen at any age. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 —about 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1.
Currently, no one knows how to prevent type 1 diabetes, but it can be treated successfully by:
Following your doctor’s recommendations for living a healthy lifestyle. Managing your blood sugar. Getting regular health checkups. Getting diabetes self-management education and support,
If your child has type 1 diabetes—especially a young child—you’ll handle diabetes care on a day-to-day basis. Daily care will include serving healthy foods, giving insulin injections, and watching for and treating hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). You’ll also need to stay in close contact with your child’s health care team.
What is the difference between type 1 & type 2 diabetes?
The main difference between the type 1 and type 2 diabetes is that type 1 diabetes is a genetic condition that often shows up early in life, and type 2 is mainly lifestyle-related and develops over time. With type 1 diabetes, your immune system is attacking and destroying the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas.
- Although type 1 and type 2 diabetes both have things in common, there are lots of differences.
- Like what causes them, who they affect, and how you should manage them.
- For a start, type 1 affects 8% of everyone with diabetes.
- While type 2 diabetes affects about 90%.
- Some people get confused between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
This can mean you have to explain that what works for one type doesn’t work for the other, and that there are different causes. The main thing to remember is that both are as serious as each other. Having high blood glucose (or sugar) levels can lead to serious health complications, no matter whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
What is considered type 1 diabetes?
What is type 1 diabetes? – Type 1 diabetes is a serious condition where your blood glucose (sugar) level is too high because your body can’t make a hormone called insulin, This happens because your body attacks the cells in your pancreas that make the insulin, meaning you can’t produce any at all.
We all need insulin to live. It does an essential job. It allows the glucose in our blood to enter our cells and fuel our bodies. When you have type 1 diabetes, your body still breaks down the carbohydrate from food and drink and turns it into glucose. But when the glucose enters your bloodstream, there’s no insulin to allow it into your body’s cells.
More and more glucose then builds up in your bloodstream, leading to high blood sugar levels.
Does type 1 diabetes go away?
Outlook (Prognosis) – Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong disease and there is no cure. Tight control of blood glucose can prevent or delay diabetes complications. But these problems can occur, even in people with good diabetes control.
What are type 1 diabetics at risk for?
Complications – Long-term complications of diabetes develop gradually. The longer you have diabetes — and the less controlled your blood sugar — the higher the risk of complications. Eventually, diabetes complications may be disabling or even life-threatening. In fact, prediabetes can lead to type 2 diabetes. Possible complications include:
Heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) disease. Diabetes majorly increases the risk of many heart problems. These can include coronary artery disease with chest pain (angina), heart attack, stroke and narrowing of arteries (atherosclerosis). If you have diabetes, you’re more likely to have heart disease or stroke. Nerve damage (neuropathy). Too much sugar can injure the walls of the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) that nourish the nerves, especially in the legs. This can cause tingling, numbness, burning or pain that usually begins at the tips of the toes or fingers and gradually spreads upward. Damage to the nerves related to digestion can cause problems with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. For men, it may lead to erectile dysfunction. Kidney damage (nephropathy). The kidneys hold millions of tiny blood vessel clusters (glomeruli) that filter waste from the blood. Diabetes can damage this delicate filtering system. Eye damage (retinopathy). Diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the eye (diabetic retinopathy). This could lead to blindness. Foot damage. Nerve damage in the feet or poor blood flow to the feet increases the risk of many foot complications. Skin and mouth conditions. Diabetes may leave you more prone to skin problems, including bacterial and fungal infections. Hearing impairment. Hearing problems are more common in people with diabetes. Alzheimer’s dise ase. Type 2 diabetes may increase the risk of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Depression. Depression symptoms are common in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Can you live a normal life with type 1 diabetes?
INTRODUCTION – Prior to the discovery of insulin, patients with type 1 diabetes had an expected lifespan of less than 3 years. With the advent of modern therapy, survival has increased progressively. However, those with type 1 diabetes remain with an increased incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and mortality compared to the general population.
- By 1991, reported standard mortality rates for those with type 1 diabetes under the age of 60 years were 9.1 for males and 13.5 for females.
- Subsequently, a cohort of 23751 patients from the United Kingdom and diagnosed with diabetes under the age of 30 years between 1972 and 1993 were analysed for cardiovascular mortality up to 2000.
These results confirmed higher mortality rates at younger ages for those with type 1 diabetes (Figure 1 ). Of interest, not only are the mortality rates for women with diabetes considerably higher than for women without diabetes, but also higher than for men without diabetes.
- Soedamah-Muthu et al, utilizing the United Kingdom General Practice research database, have also confirmed that the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains high in patients with type 1 diabetes.
- Typically, patients with type 1 diabetes reach a 10-year risk of fatal CVD of 5% about 10 to 15 years before the general population.
Furthermore, incidence rates of CAD in type 1 patients range between 1.2% and 2% per year, vs 0.1% and 0.5% in the general population. The incidence of stroke is also increased in type 1 diabetes, with overall standardised incidence ratios being 17.94 for men and 26.11 for women. Ischaemic heart disease mortality rates in people with type 1 diabetes vs general population (from: Laing et al). It is therefore clear, that despite a better understanding and treatment of appropriate risk factors and better general care, those with type 1 diabetes still have a tendency towards a shortened life span, primarily due to premature CVD.
Can you suddenly get type 1 diabetes?
Can symptoms appear suddenly? – In people with type 1 diabetes, the onset of symptoms can be very sudden, while in type 2 diabetes, they tend to come about more gradually, and sometimes there are no signs at all. Symptoms sometimes occur after a viral illness.
In some cases, a person may reach the point of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) before a type 1 diagnosis is made. DKA occurs when blood glucose (blood sugar) is dangerously high and the body can’t get nutrients into the cells because of the absence of insulin. The body then breaks down muscle and fat for energy, causing an accumulation of ketones in the blood and urine.
Symptoms of DKA include a fruity odor on the breath, heavy, taxed breathing and vomiting. If left untreated, DKA can result in stupor, unconsciousness, and even death. People who have symptoms—of type 1 or of DKA—should contact their health care provider immediately for an accurate diagnosis.
Eep in mind that these symptoms could signal other problems, too. Some people with type 1 have a “honeymoon” period, a brief remission of symptoms while the pancreas is still secreting some insulin. The honeymoon phase usually occurs after someone has started taking insulin. A honeymoon can last as little as a week or even up to a year.
But it’s important to know that the absence of symptoms doesn’t mean the diabetes is gone. The pancreas will eventually be unable to secrete insulin, and, if untreated, the symptoms will return.
Can type 1 be controlled without insulin?
In this feature, we’ll be asking questions posted by members of the Diabetes Forum. This week, the question is: ” Can I go insulin-free as someone with type 1 diabetes? ” The short answer is no. But this article isn’t the short answer. So let’s take a look at what would happen if you tried to go insulin -free with type 1 diabetes, and why it’s a bad idea.
- We’ll start with the basics.
- When we eat, food is broken down into glucose.
- The glucose goes into our blood,
- When the cells need energy, glucose in transported from the blood to the cells.
- The hormone responsible for transporting the glucose is called insulin,
- So when a person without type 1 diabetes has high blood glucose levels, the body produces more insulin to keep blood glucose levels at an even keel.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system attacks the cells in the pancreas that are responsible for producing insulin. Thinking that the insulin-producing cells are foreign invaders, the trigger-happy immune system destroys them. As a result, people with type 1 diabetes have to inject insulin.
- We need insulin.
- If you don’t have it, your blood glucose levels will spiral out of control.
- Every time you eat, they will get higher and higher.
- Out of control blood glucose levels can make you feel tired, thirsty, hungry, make you need to wee all the time and give you blurred vision,
- High blood glucose levels are responsible for complications, both short and long term.
If you regularly have high blood glucose levels, they will cause damage to various parts of your body – from the eyes to the heart to the kidneys to the brain, If you have really high blood glucose levels, you might be exposed to short-term complications.
There are two major ones: diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic syndrome, which we will refer to as HHNS. DKA is the one that commonly affects people with type 1 diabetes. We’ve already established that a lack of insulin means high blood glucose levels, but it also means that glucose isn’t going to cells.
You’re eating, but the energy isn’t going where it needs to go. It’s just sitting there. So how do we get energy, if there’s no glucose going to the blood? The body burns fat reserves. This is why people usually lose a lot of weight before being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The process of burning fat produces an acidic substance called ketones,
- A small amount of ketones is no big deal.
- Most of us burn some fat overnight, and the ketones create the phenomenon of “morning breath.” But a lot of ketones is a bad thing.
- The ketones get into your blood, causing a state called ketoacidosis.
- That’s the unpleasant truth of it: not having any insulin turns your blood into acid, and it’s this condition that we called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).
Symptoms of DKA include vomiting, dehydration, a weird fruity smell on your breath, rapid heartbeat and confusion. If left untreated, it can lead to coma and even death. Many cases of type 1 diabetes go unnoticed until DKA kicks i, especially when it occurs in children.
The kids obviously don’t know the symptoms of type 1, and their parents might not either, so the child’s blood glucose levels go up and up, unidentified as type 1 diabetes until things get serious. So that’s why people with type 1 diabetes cannot go “insulin free” no matter how carefully controlled their diet.
But it’s not a stupid question. Before the discovery of insulin, the only treatment for type 1 diabetes was the “starvation diet” which consisted of an extremely low-calorie diet and regular exercise, It extended the lives of diabetes patients, but not by much, and they didn’t live particularly nice lives.
Can type 2 diabetes turn to type 1?
Type 2 diabetes can’t turn into type 1 diabetes. They’re separate conditions with distinct causes. Type 1 diabetes tends to develop in early childhood while type 2 diabetes can take years to develop. However, some people may be misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes when they have another condition. Keep reading to learn more about type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and other diagnoses.