Diabetes is the disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Blood glucose is your main source of energy and comes from the food you eat. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps glucose from food get into your cells to be used for energy. Sometimes your body doesn’t make enough—or any—insulin or doesn’t use insulin well. Glucose then stays in your blood and doesn’t reach your cells. Over time, having too much glucose in your blood can cause health problems. Although diabetes has no cure, you can take steps to manage your diabetes and stay healthy. Sometimes people call diabetes “a touch of sugar” or “borderline diabetes.” These terms suggest that someone doesn’t really have diabetes or has a less serious case, but every case of diabetes is serious.
The most common types of the diabetes are type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes
If you have type 1 diabetes, your body do not make insulin. Your immune system attacks and destroys the cells in your pancreas which make insulin. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, although it can appear at any stage. People with type 1 diabetes are needed to take insulin every day to stay alive.
Type 2 diabetes
If you have type 2 diabetes, your body does not make or use insulin as well. You can develop type 2 diabetes at any age, even during the childhood. However, this type of diabetes occurs most often in middleaged and older people. Type 2 is the most Health care professionals usually test people for type 1 diabetes if they have clear-cut diabetes symptoms. Health care professionals most often use the random plasma glucose (RPG) test to diagnose type 1 diabetes. This blood test measures your blood glucose level at a single point in time. Sometimes health professionals also use the A1C blood test to find out how long someone has had high blood glucose.
Even though these tests can confirm that you have the diabetes, they can’t identify what type you have. Treatment depends on the type of diabetes, so knowing whether you have type 1 or type 2 is important. To find out if your diabetes is type 1, your health care professional may test your blood for certain autoantibodies. Autoantibodies are antibodies that attack the healthy tissues and cells by mistake. The presence of certain types of autoantibodies is common in type 1 but not in the type 2 diabetes.
If you have type 1 diabetes, you must take insulin because your body no longer makes this hormone. Different types of insulin start to work at different speeds, and the effects of each last a different length of time. You may need to use more than one type. You can take insulin a number of ways. Common options include a needle and syringe, insulin pen, or insulin pump.
Some people who have trouble in reaching their blood glucose targets with insulin alone also might need to take another type of diabetes medicine that works with insulin, such as pramlintide NIH external link. Pramlintide, given by the injection, helps keep blood glucose levels from going too high after eating. Few people with type 1 diabetes take pramlintide. The NIH has recently funded a large research study to test the use of pramlintide along with insulin and glucagon in people with type 1 diabetes. Another diabetes medicine, metformin, may help in decrease the amount of insulin you need to take, but more studies are needed to confirm this. Reseachers are also for studying other diabetes pills that people with type 1 diabetes might take along with insulin.
You must be logged in to post a comment.