What is Diabetes?
What is Diabetes?When you eat, your body turns food into sugars, or glucose. At that point, your pancreas is supposed to release insulin.
Insulin serves as a key to open your cells, to allow the glucose to enter and allow you to use the glucose for energy. But with diabetes, this system does not work. |
Type IThe more severe form of diabetes is type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes. It’s sometimes called “juvenile” diabetes, because type 1 diabetes usually develops in children and teenagers, though it can develop at any age.
With type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks part of its own pancreas. Scientists are not sure why. But the immune system mistakenly sees the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas as foreign, and destroys them. This attack is known as "autoimmune" disease. |
Type IIThe most common form of diabetes is called type 2, or non-insulin dependent diabetes.
People with type 2 are able to produce some of their own insulin. Often, it’s not enough. And sometimes, the insulin will try to serve as the “key” to open the body’s cells, to allow the glucose to enter. But the key won’t work. The cells won’t open. This is called insulin resistance. Often, type 2 is tied to people who are overweight, with a sedentary lifestyle. |
Treatment
For type I, a person with type 1 treats the disease by taking insulin injections.
This outside source of insulin now serves as the key bringing glucose to the body’s cells. The challenge with this treatment is that it’s often not possible to know precisely how much insulin to take. The amount is based on many factors, including:
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For type II, Treatment focuses on diet and exercise. If blood sugar levels are still high, oral medications are used to help the body use its own insulin more efficiently. In some cases, insulin injections are necessary.
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