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What Is Diabetes?
The National Institutes Of Health's "National Diabetes Education Program"
Diabetes is a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose (sugar) resulting from defects in how the body makes insulin, uses insulin or both. Insulin is a hormone that converts sugar, starches and other food into energy. High levels of glucose build up in the blood, and spill into the urine and out of the body. As a result, the body loses its main source of fuel.
Diabetes can be associated with serious complications and premature death. But people with diabetes can take steps to control the disease and lower the risk of complications.
What Are The Types Of Diabetes?
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas that help regulate blood glucose levels. Type 1 diabetes mostly has an acute onset, with children and adolescents usually able to pinpoint when symptoms began. Onset can occur at any age, but it most often occurs in children and young adults.
Since the pancreas can no longer produce insulin, people with type 1 diabetes are required to take insulin daily, either by injection or via an insulin pump. Other methods to deliver insulin are being investigated. Children with type 1 diabetes are at risk for long-term complications (damage to the cardiovascular system, kidneys, eyes, nerves, blood vessels, skin, gums, and teeth).
Type 1 diabetes accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes, but is the leading cause of diabetes in children of all ages, and in those less than 10 years of age, type 1 accounts for almost all diabetes. A diabetes management plan for young people includes insulin therapy, self-monitoring of blood glucose, healthy eating, and physical activity. The plan is designed to ensure proper growth and prevention of hypoglycemia. New management strategies are helping children with type 1 diabetes live long and healthy lives.
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Symptoms. The symptoms of type 1 diabetes usually develop over a short period of time. They include increased thirst and urination, constant hunger, weight loss, and blurred vision. Children may also feel very tired. As insulin deficiency worsens, ketoacids (formed from the breakdown of fat) build up in the blood and are excreted in the urine and breath. They cause the feeling of shortness of breath and abdominal pain, vomiting and worsening dehydration. If not diagnosed and treated with insulin, the child or teen with type 1 diabetes can lapse into a life-threatening diabetic coma, known as diabetic ketoacidosis (KEY-toe-asi-DOE-sis) or DKA. Often, children with vomiting are mistakenly diagnosed as having gastroenteritis. New-onset diabetes differs from a GI infection by the frequent urination that accompanies continued vomiting, as opposed to decreased urination due to dehydration if the vomiting is caused by a GI "bug."
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Risk factors. A combination of genetic and environmental factors put people at increased risk for type 1 diabetes. Researchers are working to identify these factors and stop the autoimmune process that destroys the pancreas.
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Co-existing diseases. Autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis are associated with type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes
The first step in the development of type 2 diabetes is often a problem with the body's response to insulin, called insulin resistance. This means that the body needs increasing amounts of insulin to control blood glucose. The pancreas tries to make more insulin, but after several years, insulin production may drop off and diabetes develops. Type 2 diabetes used to be found mainly in adults who were overweight and age 40 or older. But because 10% to 15% of children and teens are overweight — about double the number from 20 years ago — more and more young people have type 2 diabetes as a direct result of the obesity epidemic. Type 2 diabetes is also more common in certain racial and ethnic groups, such as African Americans, American Indians, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and some Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. Overweight children are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes during childhood, adolescence and later in life.
Healthy eating with portion control, checking blood glucose to make sure it stays within a safe range, and increased physical activity are very important for managing type 2 diabetes in children. They may also need to take anti-diabetes medication or insulin (or both).
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Symptoms. Type 2 diabetes usually develops slowly in children. Symptoms may be similar to those of type 1 diabetes: feeling very tired, thirsty, or nauseated (sick to the stomach), and having to urinate often. Other symptoms may include weight loss, blurred vision, frequent infections, and slow healing wounds or sores. Some children or adolescents with type 2 diabetes may show no symptoms at all when they are diagnosed, and others may present with vaginal yeast infections or burning on urination. Therefore, it is important for health care professionals to identify and test children or tessns who are at high risk for the disease.
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Risk Factors. Being overweight, having a family member who has type 2 diabetes, being a member of a high-risk ethnic group, having signs of insulin resistance, being older than age 10, and experiencing puberty are risk factors for the disease.
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