INSULIN-DEPENDENT (TYPE 1) DIABETES

Diabetes mellitus ("sugar diabetes") is a long-term condition where the body is not able to control the amount of glucose in the blood. It develops when there is an insufficient amount of the natural hormone insulin. If untreated, the symptoms include excessive thirst, lots of trips to the toilet to pass urine and weight loss. Poorly controlled blood sugar can also be a major threat to health, including increased risk of heart disease and strokes, nerve damage and blindness.

Today, almost 21 million children and adults in the US have diabetes -- including 9.1 million women -- and almost one third of them do no know it. Diabetes can be especially hard on women. The burden of diabetes on women is unique, because the disease can affect both mothers and their unborn children. Diabetes can cause difficulties during pregnancy such as a miscarriage or a baby born with birth defects. Women with diabetes are also more likely to have a heart attack, and at a younger age, than women without diabetes.

Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States, and it has no cure. For women who do not currently have diabetes, pregnancy brings the risk of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes develops in 2% to 5% of all pregnancies but disappears when a pregnancy is over. Women who have had gestational diabetes or have given birth to a baby weighting more than 9 pounds are at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2-4 times higher among African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander women than among white women. The risk for diabetes also increases with age. Because of the increasing lifespan of women and the rapid growth of minority populations, the number of women in the United States at high risk for diabetes and its complications is increasing.

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar. Sugar is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin output because of damage to the pancreas gland. Damage to the pancreas can occur for a many reasons, eg. a viral infection. But the most common cause in Type 1 diabetes is the body’s own immune system.
Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas of people with Type 1 diabetes are destroyed by cells that normally defend us from invading organisms. There are other auto-immune diseases, for example of the thyroid gland.
They are more frequent in people who have Type 1 diabetes.
This may reflect an inherited tendency to developing auto-immune disease that is triggered by some other factor in the environment.
Exactly what that trigger can be is still unclear, but there is some evidence to suggest that a virus infection could start the process off.
This is called an ‘auto-immune’ process, referring to the fact the body appears to turn against itself.

Finding out you have diabetes is scary. But don't panic. Type 1 diabetes is serious, but people with diabetes can live long, healthy, happy lives.