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What Is Type 1 Diabetes?
Your body needs fuel for energy. Through digestion, most of the food that we consume is eventually broken down, or converted, into a simple sugar called glucose. Glucose then passes into the bloodstream, where it becomes available for the cells to use for growth and energy. But the hormone insulin is needed for the cells to convert glucose into energy.
In diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin, or the cells throughout the body are unable to respond to the insulin that is produced. The end result is a buildup of glucose in the blood. Elevated blood glucose levels are responsible for many of the health problems associated with diabetes.
There are three main types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes
- Previously known as insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes.
- In this type of diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no
insulin.
- Treatment involves monitoring blood sugar levels and using insulin, along with eating a healthy diet, exercising and other lifestyle efforts.
- While type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, it most commonly develops in childhood or the teen years.
Type 2 diabetes
- Previously known as non-insulin dependent or adult-onset diabetes.
- This type of diabetes results when the body is resistant to the effects of insulin so the body's cells cannot properly use it. Another factor can be that the body produces some but not enough insulin.
- People are encouraged to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and manage their weight. If these efforts are not enough, oral medications and/or insulin may be needed to control blood glucose levels.
- This is by far the most common form of diabetes and occurs in children as well as adults.
Gestational diabetes
- Gestational diabetes is the development of glucose intolerance during pregnancy in women who did not have diabetes before.
- This type of diabetes is managed with healthy diet and exercise and insulin, if needed, to control blood sugar levels.
- Blood sugar levels usually return to normal after the pregnancy is over, but women who experience gestational diabetes have a greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
How common is type 1 diabetes?
More than 14 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to estimates from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Of those, about 5 percent to 10 percent have type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually begins in childhood or adolescence, but may start at any age. It does not have a cure.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. Researchers do not know exactly what causes the immune system to attack and destroy the beta cells within the pancreas, but the end result is the inability of the pancreas to produce the hormone insulin.
Before the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, people with type 1 diabetes usually died within a year of diagnosis. All of that has changed. Although people with type 1 diabetes require insulin injections several times each day to balance their blood glucose levels, they can expect to live a long life.
New discoveries in type 1 diabetes
Some of the most promising diabetes research appears to be in the area of islet cell transplants. The islet cells are special cells in the pancreas that make insulin. Many people who received islet transplants for poorly controlled type 1 diabetes are free of the need for insulin a year later, and episodes of dangerously low blood glucose are greatly reduced for as long as five years after transplant. But there is still work to be done in this area. The transplanted islets cells lose function over time, and necessary immunosuppressive drugs have side effects.
Scientists hope that someday they will develop ways to prevent type 1 diabetes. They have already identified a part of the human genome that causes an increased risk for developing diabetes, plus changes in other genes that also increase the risk. They are also researching environmental factors, such as viruses, toxins and dietary factors, that may contribute to type 1 diabetes.
This article was reviewed by Melinda Ratini, D.O., M.S.
06/2008
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