Type 1 Diabetes
What it is
First of all, let’s define diabetes.
- When you have a meal or a snack, some of the foods you eat – called carbohydrates – break down into sugar and go into your bloodstream.
- Think of your bloodstream as your highway system, and the blood sugar needs to travel where it is needed – your muscles, all of your organs, everywhere it can be used for energy.
- However, the sugar needs to be transported, or carried, and what carries it to its many destinations is insulin. So think of insulin as your UPS, FedEx or Post Office carrier. It is made by the pancreas, which sits right by the stomach.
- When things are normal, the pancreas makes the right amount of insulin all of the time, and blood sugar levels stay in the normal range.
- However, without insulin, the sugar just sits in the bloodstream, and the level of sugar goes higher and higher. This is type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes accounts for only 5 – 10 percent of all cases, and used to be called juvenile diabetes. Three-quarters of people who develop type 1 are under the age of 18, and most others are under 40 years old, but older adults develop it as well.
Many people think of type 1 diabetes as the more serious kind, because injecting insulin is the only treatment, but its type 2 counterpart can lead to the same long-term problems we all want to prevent. Another common distinction between the two forms of diabetes is the lack of insulin resistance in persons with type 1; in fact, most people with type 1 diabetes are quite sensitive to insulin and require smaller doses. However, overweight and obese people often experience insulin resistance, regardless of their form of diabetes.
