Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
Friday
Jul 17, 2009
Type 1 diabetes
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 a hormone that is needed to convert sugar (glucose), starches and other food into energy needed for daily life.
Type 2 diabetes
Unlike Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 diabetes is not a failure of the pancreas, but an inability to produce adequate amounts of insulin for a body that is out of control. On top of that, the insulin that is being produced is not acting the way it should, a situation called insulin resistance that occurs when the insulin can no longer stimulate the cells to process the sugar in the blood. This causes the sugar to build up in the blood, ultimately doing damage to the heart, eyes, and kidneys, and creating small-vessel disease.
Type 2 diabetes is now an epidemic, and if not corrected in this generation, it will probably be responsible for most of the strokes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease that we will encounter in our sixties and seventies. Type 2 diabetes is especially common among African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and certain Asian populations.
Most people develop Type 2 diabetes because they are overweight. Basically the human body does two things: it takes in calories, and it burns calories. When you consistently bring in more calories than you burn off, all those extra calories turn into fat. That fat first gets stored in the abdomen and the intestines, and then it begins to infiltrate the muscle mass of our body. And what you end up with looks very much like a marbleized piece of sirloin that you see at the butcher shop. That marbleization is one of the hallmarks of people with Type 2 diabetes.
If you keep piling on the extra calories, the pancreas, whose function begins to slow down anyway with age, is no longer able to meet the demand for large quantities of insulin needed to metabolize all that sugar in the blood.
If you were to lose weight, a significant amount of weight, I mean, your Type 2 diabetes could disappear almost overnight. Yes, it’s that simple. I, myself, was a diabetic. I had very elevated sugars. I was overweight, excessively stressed, and exercise-phobic. I had a very clear, black-and-white case of Type 2 diabetes. So I lost 50 pounds; I now exercise three times a week, and I’ve maintained that weight loss.
Today, I am no longer diabetic. If, like me, you have not had Type 2 diabetes for very long, and if you can overcome it by simple weight loss, you will end up with no permanent damage to your organs.
Diabetes can be managed. Ultimately, if you’re talking about juvenile diabetes and you start very early in the game by getting diagnosed and getting effective treatment, you can probably expect a normal life expectancy, but it’s a very dedicated type of life.
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