Understanding Type 1 Diabetes

AFFECTS YOUNG CHILDREN
Type 1 (Juvenile) diabetes strikes children suddenly, makes them dependent on injected or pumped insulin for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications, even death.

WHAT IS TYPE 1 DIABETES
Type 1 diabetes (a.k.a "juvenile" or "insulin-dependent" diabetes) develops in children and young people, when their own body's immune system attacks and destroys pancreatic beta cells. These beta cells produce the life sustaining insulin required by the body to fulfill its most essential function of converting food into energy to fuel the body's organs. Type 1 diabetes typically appears during childhood or adolescence, but can develop at any age. There is no cure. 13,000 children and young people in the United States are diagnosed each year. About 1 in 500 children/young people have Type 1 diabetes.

NEEDS CONSTANT ATTENTION
To stay alive, people with Type 1 diabetes must take multiple insulin injections daily this form of diabetes must always be prepared for serious hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reactions, both of which can be life limiting and life threatening. This disease requires never ending vigilance. or continually infuse insulin through a pump, and test their blood sugar by pricking their fingers for blood six or more times a day. While trying to balance insulin doses with their food intake and daily activities, people with this form of diabetes must always be prepared for serious hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reactions, both of which can be life limiting and life threatening. This disease requires never ending vigilance.

INSULIN DOES NOT CURE DIABETES
While insulin allows a person to stay alive, it does not cure diabetes nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating effects: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputations, heart attack and stroke. At this time, there is no cure.

DIFFICULT TO MANAGE
Despite rigorous attention to maintaining a meal plan and exercise regimen, and always injecting the proper amount of insulin, many other factors can adversely affect efforts to tightly control blood sugar levels including: stress, hormonal changes, periods of growth, physical activity, medications, illness/infection and fatigue.

WARNING SIGNS
Physical symptoms of Type 1 diabetes may initially appear harmless but they are seriously life-threatening. Some symptoms are often mistaken for other conditions. Watch your child for these symptoms:

• Increased thirst and frequent urination. When excess sugar builds up in your bloodstream, fluid is pulled from your bodily tissues, likely leaving you thirsty. As a result, your child may drink and urinate more than usual.
• Extreme hunger. Without insulin to move sugar into cells, your child's muscles and organs ing to death. become under nourished and depleted of energy. Intense hunger may persist even after they have eaten. Energy from food never reaches their energy-starved tissues. So basically, even though they are eating, they are literally starving to death.
• Extreme hunger. Without insulin to move sugar into cells, your child's muscles and organs ing to death. become under nourished and depleted of energy. Intense hunger may persist even after they have eaten. Energy from food never reaches their energy-starved tissues. So basically, even though they are eating, they are literally starving to death.
• Weight loss. Despite increased eating to relieve hunger, your child will likely lose weight-sometimes rapidly.
• Fatigue. When cells are deprived of sugar, they may feel tired and irritable.
• Blurred vision. When blood sugar levels remain high fluid may be pulled from the lenses of your eyes. This may affect your child's ability to focus clearly.
• Unusually emotional or irritable. For no known reason.

WHAT CAUSES DIABETES?
While the cause of this process are not yet entirely understood, scientists believe that both genetic factors and environmental triggers are involved. People who get Type 1 diabetes were born with a genetic predisposition to it. Not everyone born with this predisposition gets diabetes, however. In fact, if an identical twin has diabetes, the other twin only gets diabetes about half the time. Some predisposed individuals are exposed to something in the environment that triggers the diabetes. This is usually a viral infection. The virus misleads the body's immune system into making antibodies that attack it own pancreatic cells.

HOW IS TYPE 1 DIABETES TREATED?
Treatment for type 1 diabetes is a lifelong commitment. To stay alive, a person with Type 1 diabetes requires insulin replacement therapy. This intensive therapy involves taking multiple daily injections or infusion of insulin through a pump. To remain healthy, people with Type 1 diabetes must monitor blood sugar numerous times daily; maintain a healthy diet; and exercise regularly. The goal is to keep blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible to attempt to prevent or delay diabetes related complications. If they don’t, cardiovascular complications begin, heart disease, organs begin to fail, eventually causing blindness, kidney failure and death. For a person with Type 1 diabetes, keeping blood sugar levels in a normal range is challenging.

COMPLICATIONS
Type 1 diabetes complications can be disabling and life-threatening. This disease can affect every major organ in your body. The longer you have Type 1 diabetes, the earlier in life these complications can emerge.

• Short term: People with Type 1 diabetes must concern themselves with these possibilities on a daily basis.
  • Hyperglycemia (High blood sugar).
  • Diabetic ketoacidosis.
  • Hypoglycemia (Low blood sugar).
  • These are immediate medical emergencies with rapid onset. Untreated, seizures or coma may occur.
• Long term: (Statistics based on CDC’s diabetes fact sheet)
  • Heart disease is the leading cause of diabetes related deaths.
  • 60 to 70% of people with diabetes have a form of nervous system damage.
  • More than 60% of non-traumatic lower limb amputations occur among people with diabetes.
  • Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal (kidney) disease.
  • Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20-74.
  • Dental (Periodontal/Gum) Disease is common among people with diabetes,
  • Complications of pregnancy. Major birth defects occur in 5% to 10% of pregnancies, if diabetes is poorly controlled, and spontaneous abortions occur in 15% to 20% of pregnancies.
• Other complications: People with diabetes are more susceptible to many other illnesses and if acquired, these illnesses often have a more serious prognosis.
  • For example, people with diabetes are more likely to die with pneumonia or influenza than people without diabetes.
  • Depression. A 2003 study by the CDC showed people with diabetes may be twice as likely to suffer from clinical depression.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF TYPE 1 DIABETES.
Some facts are:

• Type 1 diabetes is not preventable. Nothing a child or parent does causes Type 1 diabetes. They cannot prevent it.
• Type 1 diabetes is not caused by obesity, or eating too much sugar. While obesity has been identified as one of the 'triggers' for Type 2 diabetes, it has no relation to the cause of Type 1. Eating too much sugar is not a factor.
• Type 1diabetes cannot be controlled, only managed the best of your ability.
• Insulin is not a cure for Type 1 diabetes, but merely life support.

There is a great deal of confusion about diabetes, due to similar names. As a matter of science though, the types of diseases are quite distinct.

Other Types of Diabetes

Type 2: Formerly called adult onset or non-insulin dependent diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. People can develop Type 2 at any age. This form of diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance, a condition in which fat, muscle and liver cells do not use insulin properly. Being overweight and inactive increases the chances of developing Type 2. Treatment includes taking oral diabetes medicines, making wise food choices, exercising regularly, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Gestational: Some women develop gestational diabetes during the late stages of pregnancy. Although this form of diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born, a woman who has it is more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes later in life. Gestational diabetes is caused by the hormones of pregnancy or a shortage of insulin.