| Types of Diabetes |
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Type 1 Diabetes This type of diabetes is developed when the pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin, are killed by the body's own immune system. Better known as juvenile diabetes after it's former name of juvenile-onset diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). People who have type 1 diabetes need insulin injected, either by needle or pump. Since this disease strike children and young adults primarily,hence the nickname of juvenile diabetes. Though it can occur at any age. Only 5 to 10 percent of all diabetes patients fall into this category. Several risk factors for this for this group are autoimmune, genetic, or environmental. Type 1 diabetes is not preventable or curable, though proper management of blood glucose can marginalizes their complications.
Type 2 Diabetes Type 2 diabetes usually begins as insulin resistance, where the cells do not use insulin properly. Then as the need for insulin rises, the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin decreases. Older age, obesity, gestational diabetes, family history, physical inactivity, race/ethnicity, and impaired glucose metabolism are all risk factors for the onset of type 2 diabetes. Over 90 percent of diabetics in the United States fall into this category. Treatments range for diet/exercise regimes to oral medication to insulin injection to all three. As with all diabetes maintaining as close to normal blood sugar greatly reduces the extent and amount of complications that is brought on by diabetes. Gestational Diabetes Glucose intolerance during pregnancy is another form of diabetes. The main treatment for this type of diabetes is diet and/or exercise. As complications to this form of diabetes is geared more toward the infant then the mother, high birth weight being the most pronounced. 5 to 10 percent of women diagnosed with gestational will then be found to have type 2 diabetes after pregnancy, with those remaining having a 20 to 50 percent chance of onset within the next 5 to 10 years. |
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