Diabetes is a serious problem all across the world. The disease has long been established to be a chronic or life long disease much in the same way as hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease and some cancers.
Diabetes is essentially a problem with the body failing to deal with blood glucose levels in the blood which is important in the supply of energy to be human body.
The food that we eat especially carbohydrates is converted to glucose commonly known as blood sugar. In the second instance, the body receives very little insulin resulting in inefficient absorption of glucose by the body. This is essentially type 2 diabetes. Of the two only 5 percent of all diabetes sufferers are type 1 diabetes patients. This way the body can process efficiently the blood glucose.
Type 2 diabetes patients will require in some cases both an injection and a pharmaceutical drug to help have more insulin supplied by the pancreas.
Studies show that people who are overweight or obese are at very high risk of developing diabetes. These often develop type 2 diabetes which can be treated by loosing weight and maintaining an ideal weight for one's age.
The fact that there is a string link between diabetes and weight is the reason behind a growing number of kids in most western countries who are obese and suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is therefore a strong outcome of being overweight or obese in kids. Left untreated the complications of diabetes will include kidney failure, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, blindness and even amputations.
The distinction between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes used to be a simple one. The older literature refers to Type 1 diabetes as juvenile onset, or insulin-dependent, diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is referred to as adult onset, or non-insulin dependent, diabetes. Now the distinctions have become blurred as children begin to get Type 2 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes is sometimes treated with insulin.
Type 1 is treated with insulin exclusively. Type 1 diabetics can get a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, although this is rare in Type 2.
The causes of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are different. Type 1 is what is termed an autoimmune disease, meaning that the body's immune system attacks the beta cells of the pancreas, where insulin is produced.
That is why patients with Type 1 have very low levels of insulin or no insulin being produced by their body. Type 2 diabetes is caused by insensitivity to insulin and actually, in the early stages of this condition, body insulin levels are high.
In Type 2, glucose is unable to enter your body's cells because the cells are insensitive to insulin. That is why in both cases blood sugar is higher than normal, and diabetes is diagnosed, although the two types of diabetes could actually be considered two different diseases.
The distinction between type 1 and type 2 diabetes can be made with a medical history, physical examination, and laboratory testing. If you or a loved one is diagnosed with diabetes, your physician is likely to ask if diabetes runs in your family, and, if so, what kind and how your relative was treated.
mother's age at the time of your birth and your birth weight
problems with your mother's pregnancy (gestational diabetes)
pulse and blood pressure
height
weight, and
laboratory testing can include not only a fasting blood sugar level, but blood insulin level as well
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