Understanding diabetes: Type 1 vs. Type 2 causes and treatment

Medically reviewed by Liz Oler, PharmD

Diabetes is a continual (long-term) situation that impacts how your physique will get vitality from the meals you eat, in response to the CDC. Realizing the distinction between kind 1 and sort 2 diabetes is vital as a result of every kind has distinctive causes, danger components, remedy choices, and administration methods.

What’s diabetes?  

Your physique wants vitality to work and keep wholesome, and it will get most of that vitality from breaking down meals into glucose (sugar).

When glucose enters your bloodstream, it raises your blood sugar. This tells your pancreas that it’s time to launch some insulin. Because the insulin travels by your physique, it acts like a key, letting the glucose into your cells, the place it’s transformed into vitality. 

In individuals with diabetes, there’s a spot between how a lot insulin you want and the way a lot your physique could make, resulting in excessive blood sugar. In kind 1 diabetes, the pancreas doesn’t make insulin in any respect. In kind 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes, the physique nonetheless makes insulin, nevertheless it both doesn’t make sufficient or doesn’t use it very properly. 

Sort 1 Diabetes 

 About 5 to 10% of individuals with diabetes have Sort 1 diabetes.

In kind 1 diabetes, an autoimmune response causes the physique’s immune system to assault wholesome insulin-producing cells within the pancreas. Over time, this destroys the physique’s capability to make insulin. 

Sort 1 diabetes can develop at any age, nevertheless it mostly happens in kids, teenagers, and younger adults. You might be extra more likely to develop kind 1 diabetes if in case you have a dad or mum or sibling with the situation. Right now, there’s no recognized strategy to forestall kind 1 diabetes. 

Signs of kind 1 diabetes can seem immediately over a number of days or even weeks and should embrace being extra hungry or thirsty than traditional, frequent urination, blurry imaginative and prescient, fatigue, and weight reduction.  

Sort 1 diabetes is identified with blood exams to measure blood glucose. Remedy often includes a number of every day insulin injections and self-monitoring blood sugar. 

Sort 2 Diabetes 

About 90-95% of individuals with diabetes have Sort 2 diabetes.

It occurs when your physique doesn’t make sufficient insulin (insulin deficiency) or your cells don’t react to it very properly (insulin resistance), resulting in excessive blood sugar. 

Sort 2 diabetes can develop at any age, nevertheless it’s often identified in adults who’re middle-aged or older. Danger components embrace: 

• Household historical past of diabetes 

• Life-style components (age, weight, weight-reduction plan, bodily exercise degree) 

You might assist forestall kind 2 diabetes by consuming nutrient-rich meals, reaching and sustaining a wholesome weight, and exercising usually. 

Signs of kind 2 diabetes can develop slowly over a number of years and embrace being extra hungry or thirsty than traditional, frequent urination, blurry imaginative and prescient, fatigue, and weight reduction.  

Sort 2 diabetes is identified with blood exams to measure blood glucose. Remedy often includes wholesome life-style modifications, typically accompanied by medicine and insulin. 

Managing kind 1 and sort 2 diabetes includes: 

• Self-monitoring blood sugar ranges: Don’t overlook to document your measurements! They’re an awesome device for making knowledgeable choices about your weight-reduction plan, bodily exercise, and remedy.

• Common checkups: Right here, you’ll set targets to assist handle your situation, usually by measuring 3 key issues—A1C (your common blood sugar during the last 3 months), blood stress, and ldl cholesterol. Simply suppose ABCs! 

• Meal planning: A diabetes meal plan ought to embrace a steadiness of nutritious meals from all meals teams, prioritizing sources of fiber, heart-healthy protein, and wholesome fat. Attempt to keep away from saturated and trans fat, high-salt (sodium) meals, and high-sugar meals. 

• Bodily exercise: Common train will help enhance coronary heart well being, blood stress, muscle energy, and insulin sensitivity. In individuals with kind 2 diabetes, it could additionally assist decrease blood glucose and promote wholesome weight reduction. 

• Discovering your group: Supportive assets and group is usually a actual supply of energy when dwelling with diabetes. Should you don’t know the place to begin, take a look at the American Diabetes Affiliation’s Instruments and Sources web page and database of diabetes organizations and occasions. 

Disclaimer:

The content material on this web page is for informational and academic functions solely and shouldn’t be relied on as medical recommendation. This data isn’t meant to be an alternative to skilled medical recommendation, analysis, or remedy of a certified health-care supplier. All the time search the steerage of your physician or different certified well being skilled with any questions you will have concerning your well being or a medical situation, or in case you are looking for medical recommendation, diagnoses, or remedy.  Statements inside this text haven’t been evaluated or accepted by the Meals and Drug Administration.