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What Happens with Diabetes?

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What Happens with Diabetes?
What Happens with Type 1 Diabetes?
If you’re diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes it means you have a genetic component whereby you can’t produce any of your own insulin. Historically, all childhood diabetes has been Type 1. 
Some children are given only one type of insulin, whereas others may have two. They have one or two injections a day, sometimes more. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s immune system mistaking the insulin producing beta cells (located in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas) as something alien and destroying them. Currently there is no way to predict who will develop this type of diabetes, but if any of your ancestors had it you stand a chance of developing it.
 
Developing Type 1 diabetes has nothing whatsoever to do with having had a bad diet. The link between Type 1 diabetes and diet is that you will now be able to feel how different foods affect you – something very sugary will have a distinct and definite effect. If you have just been diagnosed with diabetes, you will have to do blood tests and judge your food (mainly by ‘counting carbohydrates’) so that you can give yourself the right dose of insulin (by injection or insulin pump) to balance out the food eaten. 
You must also remember that your body needs insulin to survive. If you go off your food, you cannot stop taking your insulin as you will become very unwell. So if you plan on losing weight by reducing what you eat, don’t make the mistake of thinking you won’t need insulin. If you want to lose weight, reduce your insulin to match your reduced intake of food, but don’t stop taking your medication.
What Happens with Type 2 Diabetes?
If you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes it means that you can make your own insulin, but its effectiveness is compromised.
Type 2 diabetes is associated with bad diet, lack of exercise and generally having too much weight. There are some medical conditions and genetic factors (e.g. the ‘fat gene’) which indicate that such weight gain is down to certain metabolic factors, but about 80% of Type 2 diabetes is down to ‘less than ideal’ eating habits and excess weight. 
When you are first diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes, you are likely to have your diet reviewed and you may be put on pills to stabilise your blood sugar levels. It’s unlikely that you will be put on insulin, at least not initially, but that may come later.
It appears that changes in society such as the increased access to highly-processed carbohydrates, as found in fast foods, and the greater choice we now have in supermarkets, which we tend to drive and not walk to, may have led to Type 2 becoming an ‘epidemic’ of our times.
For more information about what happens with diabetes, take a look at Diabetes – The Essential Guide. Buy the printed version and get the eBook totally free!

What is the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and what happens?

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What Happens with Type 1 Diabetes?

If you’re diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes it means you have a genetic component whereby you can’t produce any of your own insulin. Historically, all childhood diabetes has been Type 1. 

Some children are given only one type of insulin, whereas others may have two. They have one or two injections a day, sometimes more. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s immune system mistaking the insulin producing beta cells (located in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas) as something alien and destroying them. Currently there is no way to predict who will develop this type of diabetes, but if any of your ancestors had it you stand a chance of developing it.

Developing Type 1 diabetes has nothing whatsoever to do with having had a bad diet. The link between Type 1 diabetes and diet is that you will now be able to feel how different foods affect you – something very sugary will have a distinct and definite effect. If you have just been diagnosed with diabetes, you will have to do blood tests and judge your food (mainly by ‘counting carbohydrates’) so that you can give yourself the right dose of insulin (by injection or insulin pump) to balance out the food eaten. 

You must also remember that your body needs insulin to survive. If you go off your food, you cannot stop taking your insulin as you will become very unwell. So if you plan on losing weight by reducing what you eat, don’t make the mistake of thinking you won’t need insulin. If you want to lose weight, reduce your insulin to match your reduced intake of food, but don’t stop taking your medication.

What Happens with Type 2 Diabetes?

If you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes it means that you can make your own insulin, but its effectiveness is compromised.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with bad diet, lack of exercise and generally having too much weight. There are some medical conditions and genetic factors (e.g. the ‘fat gene’) which indicate that such weight gain is down to certain metabolic factors, but about 80% of Type 2 diabetes is down to ‘less than ideal’ eating habits and excess weight. 

When you are first diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes, you are likely to have your diet reviewed and you may be put on pills to stabilise your blood sugar levels. It’s unlikely that you will be put on insulin, at least not initially, but that may come later.It appears that changes in society such as the increased access to highly-processed carbohydrates, as found in fast foods, and the greater choice we now have in supermarkets, which we tend to drive and not walk to, may have led to Type 2 becoming an ‘epidemic’ of our times.

Extract taken from Diabetes - The Essential Guide. For more information on what happens with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, take a look at the book - available now in eBook, printed book and large print formats. Buy the printed version and get the eBook free!