DiabetesDiabetes mellitus, SugarDiabetes is a condition in which blood glucose stays too high, either because the body makes too little insulin or because it has stopped responding to it. Pakistan has one of the highest rates in the world, and a large share of people with it do not yet know.
Type 1 diabetes
Also known as Insulin-dependent diabetes, Juvenile diabetes, T1D
A form of diabetes where the immune system destroys the cells that make insulin, so insulin injections are needed for life.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition. It is not caused by diet or weight, and nothing the patient or parent did brought it on — a point worth stating plainly, because families often carry unnecessary guilt.
How it differs from type 2
| Type 1 | Type 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Usual age at onset | Children and young adults, but any age | Usually over 35, increasingly younger |
| Onset | Weeks — often dramatic | Years — often silent |
| Body weight | Often normal or lost weight | Often overweight |
| Treatment | Insulin, always, from diagnosis | Lifestyle, tablets, sometimes insulin later |
Related terms
- InsulinInsulin hormone, Insulin injectionInsulin is the hormone made by the pancreas that moves glucose out of the blood and into cells. As a medicine it replaces or supplements what the body cannot produce, and it is given by injection because stomach acid would destroy it.
- Beta cellβ-cell, Islet beta cellThe cells in the pancreas that make insulin. Diabetes develops when they are destroyed or can no longer keep up.
- Diabetic ketoacidosisDKAA medical emergency in which a severe lack of insulin makes the body burn fat for fuel, flooding the blood with acids called ketones.