What is the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?
There is a significant dissimilarity that you should know about.
Diabetes is a medical problem where the body is unable to utilize glucose.
In most people, the body has no problem maintaining the right level of blood sugar on its own.
In non-diabetics, when the blood sugar rises above normal levels or goes lower than normal, the body releases hormones to lower or raise it back to normal levels.
To lower blood sugar, the body releases a hormone called insulin. Diabetes can afflict anyone of any age.
It usually happens when the body doesn’t properly use or produce it resulting in too much sugar in their blood.
In diabetics, there is a problem with this hormone. If it is not present, or if its action is blocked, sugar remains in the body.
The blood sugar level rises and the diabetic condition results.
Both forms of the disease have insulin issues, but the exact nature of the problem differs from type 1 to type 2.
How do you get type 1 diabetes?
With this type, the body either can’t produce insulin at all or is not capable of producing enough of it to work properly.
The cells that produce it have been damaged or destroyed and can’t make enough of it to regulate blood sugar.
This can happen due to:
- An inherited vulnerability
- Acute injury to the beta cells
Injury to the beta cells stimulates the body’s immune system to attack these cells, damaging them severely or destroying them altogether.
What causes type 1 diabetes?
In insulin-dependent diabetes, the medical history might include:
- A problematic pregnancy (the mother)
- Early childhood diseases such as coxsackievirus, mumps or rubella
- Failure to thrive
- Weight loss
- Dehydration
- Family history – might consist of having a parent with this type
- A physical examination might show poor growth, weight loss, or dehydration
Its symptoms, caused by an autoimmune disease, develop over a short period although it is important to take note that the beta cell destruction had already begun years earlier.
An autoimmune disease occurs if a person’s immune system (the body’s system for fighting infection) turns against a part of the body.
This type is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes due to the total or near-total lack of the hormone in the body.
Laboratory tests should show high blood sugar levels and low hormone levels.
Is there a prevention for type 1 diabetes?
There is virtually nothing that a person can do to prevent having insulin-dependent diabetes.
How do you develop diabetes type 2?
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is by far the more common form of the disease; at least 90% of diabetics have it. Usually, there is no defect in the production of insulin.
However, there is a kind of block in the cell’s ability to utilize the hormone that is produced.
This type of disease form stems from an underlying condition called insulin resistance.
Several factors contribute to the development of insulin resistance.
How do you know if its Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes?
Methods for determining which type of diabetes you are dealing with, include:
- A medical history
- Family history
- A physical examination and
- Laboratory tests
Difference Between Type 2 Diabetes vs Type 1
To understand the different types of diabetes, it is important to understand how the body processes sugar.
In general terms, when a person consumes carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose that enters the bloodstream.
The pancreas produces insulin and adds it to the bloodstream. It facilitates getting the sugar into the individual cells so that they can produce the energy they need.
Can you live a normal life with type 1 diabetes?
With this type, it is necessary to take insulin injections. The hormone is injected into fatty places on the body.
Thus it enters the bloodstream and assists the glucose from getting into the cells.
Several types of insulin are used in combination to give the best coverage for what a person eats.
Without it, a type 1 diabetic would die. Yes, you can still live normally, just have to pay attention to your shots and healthy living.
All about type 2 diabetes
It is formerly called adult-onset diabetes. In this type, the person’s pancreas produces enough of the hormone, but the body is not able to use it properly.
This is called insulin resistance. This creates the same high concentration of glucose in the bloodstream that type 1 diabetics have.
Type 2 diabetes treatment without medication?
Type 2 diabetics have more options when it comes to treatment. Since the body is producing insulin, it may not be necessary to inject more. Type 2 diabetics can be treated with diet and exercise.
The most common form of diabetes
The symptoms of T2D develop gradually. About 95% of those who have it are inflicted with type 2, making it the most common form of the disease.
Who is at risk for type 2 diabetes?
It is mostly associated with those who have weight problems (obesity), are older (above 45 years), genetics (family history of diabetes), not enough exercise, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood levels of triglycerides, and certain ethnics groups.
Are all diabetics overweight?
According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 80% of those patients with diabetes type 2 are overweight. While type 1 afflicts those in childhood or adolescence, T2D usually afflicts those more mature of age.
What are the complications of both types of diabetes?
The doctors of the American Diabetes Association saw the next complications that are related to both types of the disease.
1. Heart and kidney disease
Since diabetics produce little to no insulin (Type 1) or the body becomes resistant to the insulin produced (Type 2), glucose can’t be removed from the blood and transferred to the cells in the body by the hormone.
Diabetic kidney disease
The extreme accumulation of glucose in the blood can lead to damage of various organs in the body such as the heart and kidneys leading to heart and kidney disease.
What is the leading cause of death in diabetic patients?
Heart disease is probably the leading cause of death in diabetics.
Kidneys may fail which could result in an inability of the kidneys to process waste leading to kidney disease.
Kidney failure in a diabetic will require dialysis or a kidney transplant.
2. Diabetic eye disease
The excessive glucose in the blood can also damage the veins including the veins in the eye by causing them to bleed leading to eye problems including diabetes-related blindness.
3. Diabetic foot problems
Excess glucose in the blood can lead to nerve damage especially in the feet leading to numbness in the feet which could require amputation.
4. Diabetes-accelerated atherosclerosis
Having diabetes that is not properly managed can accelerate the development of this dangerous health condition which represents the clogging of the arteries which causes insufficient blood flow.
It can lead to heart stroke, heart attack, eye disorders, kidney disease, and impotence gangrene. It could also result in death.
5. Diabetic Ketoacidosis
An abnormal condition that involves the burning of fatty deposits and not glucose for energy is known as ketosis which results in the production of ketones that is more than normal.
Normally, ketones are broken down into water and carbon dioxide by various organs such as the liver.
Is diabetic ketoacidosis fatal?
When the body gets forced to obtain energy by burning fat because glucose can’t be converted to energy in a diabetic, it can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis which is life-threatening.
This condition usually causes severe dehydration as well as diabetic coma.
6. Diabetes and gum disease
Diabetics are especially susceptible to infection, and one of the complications of the disease is gingivitis and gum disease that diabetics need to be careful about.
The most common form of diabetes, however, which is becoming a worldwide epidemic, is T2D which is caused by an entirely different underlying pathology.
Usually, insulin is not given on a regular basis to treat this type.
Which is worse type 1 or type 2 diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is insulin-dependent, meaning the treatment with the hormone is necessary from the first time the disease was diagnosed. The process is known as autoimmunity.
It destroys insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. This leads eventually to a total loss of hormone production.
Without it, the blood sugar levels rise relentlessly and the person can die.
T2D is often treated in the early stages by diet and exercise, though there is a trend for people to be treated with tablets straight after diagnosis.
The mainstay of type 2 diabetes drug treatment in people both young and old is metformin.
Misinform can be used by all age groups, as long as they don’t have kidney trouble.
The drug reduces the level of glucose produced by the liver in the period between meals.
Generally speaking, there is nothing you can do to change your chance of getting insulin-dependent diabetes.
However, T2D is a different story. Excess calories of any kind or just insufficient physical exercise, and eating too much is clearly related to obesity.
If you have a genetic susceptibility to T2D, obesity will make you much more likely to develop it.
