Conditions and treatments of Type 1 Diabetes
According to new researches, each year about 798,000 people are diagnosed with diabetes and 2,200 new cases of diabetes mellitus are diagnosed in the United States alone every day. Although diabetes occurs most often in adults, but about 123,000 children and teenagers age 19 and younger have type 1 diabetes in the United States.
Type 1 diabetes is also known as juvenile diabetes, brittle diabetes, sugar diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes. Considered as autoimmune disease or idiopathic diabetes , It is one of the most common chronic disorders in children. It’s less common than type 2 but some northern European countries, including Finland and Sweden , have high rates of type 1 diabetes.
What is type 1 diabetes?
Generally found in children and young adults , Type one diabetes results when our immune system (body’s system for fighting infection) attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas and destroys them. The pancreas becomes unable to produce enough insulin that controls blood sugar levels in our body . Blood glucose levels get sensitive to small changes in diet, exercise, and insulin dose.
Without insulin the body starves to death, as sugar builds up in the blood and can damage internal organs, the nervous system and blood vessels. To terminate this lack of insulin, patients have to take insulin injections. According to the national Institutes of Health, 1.7 million Americans are suffering from type 1 diabetes.
The occurrence of type 1 diabetes is divided into five stages:
- Genetic predisposition
- Environmental trigger
- Active autoimmunity
- Progressive beta-cell destruction
- Exposure of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes
There are two forms of type 1 diabetes:
- Idiopathic type one diabetes
- Immune-mediated type one diabetes
Immune-mediated diabetes is the most common form of type 1 diabetes . Although the reasons of type 1 diabetes are not known, but there is evidence for being inherited.
Symptoms of type one diabetes
Some symptoms of type 1 diabetes are unusual thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger especially of cola drinks, coffee, dry mouth, weight loss even if you are eating well, feeling of weakness and tired, continuous skin infections, cramps, blurry vision nausea and vomiting etc. You may also feel fatigued and irritable.
Often, symptoms of type 1 diabetes develop over a short period, and If the disease is not diagnosed and treated with insulin, several risks can arise because of type 1 diabetes, as heart disease, blindness, nerve damage, kidney damage etc.
Some of the extreme complications are–Hypoglycemia due to very low blood sugar level, Hyperglycemia due to excessively high blood sugar level and Ketoacidosis due to untreated or under-treated diabetes, which leads to loss of consciousness. Even a person can lapse into a life-threatening coma.
Treatment for type 1 diabetes mellitus
Treatment of type 1 diabetes depends on many factors, like age, health, extent of disease, medical history, genetic factors and tolerance power regarding particular medication, procedure or therapies. After considering all these things, the patients are advised taking appropriate foods to manage blood sugar level in control, extent of exercise, to take insulin shots and many other prescriptions.
Now, there are different types of insulin also available that give more flexibility in the numbers and timings of injections making it easier to maintain target blood glucose levels, based on your lifestyle.
One more hope of cure for people with type 1 diabetes, is transplantation of the pancreas or insulin-producing beta cells. Some people have successful transplantation of their pancreas but they have to take powerful drugs to prevent abandonment of the transplanted organ.