I’m sure you’ve heard of diabetes in some way, whether through the news, the media, scientific papers, personal experience, etc. Despite all of that, many people don’t know what diabetes is specifically, other than the fact that there are two types and that it sucks (it’s actually one of the leading causes of death in the entire world)!
So, what is diabetes? Diabetes is, at its simplest, a disease that comes about as a result of very high blood sugar. Here are the two types, with their associated diseases:
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes comes from the inability to produce enough insulin. Insulin is the hormone that basically regulates digestion of carbs and fats and promotes absorption of glucose from the blood. You can imagine insulin as the “shuttle” that brings the glucose from the food you eat into your tissues and organs. It’s necessary because if you don’t have insulin, glucose will build up in your blood and kill you. No, I’m not kidding.
You can think of Type 1 Diabetes as walking into the shuttle-making factory (in this case, the pancreas) and breaking things in the factory so that the shuttles that regulate the glucose intake by your body don’t work at all. All the symptoms that happen (increased urination, increased hunger, increased thirst) are a result of that.
Woman checking her blood sugar levels.
Image source: PeopleImages
Treatment and Prevention
It is very controversial in whether or not Type 1 diabetes is preventable, as many consider the risk factors genetic. Type 1 Diabetes typically makes up 5-10% of all diabetes cases and typically has unknown causes. The treatment is relatively simple, involving insulin injection and monitoring blood sugar. To go back to the old analogy, injecting insulin would be like importing new shuttles so that your shuttles aren’t as busy (considering you don’t have many shuttles to begin with).
“Wait,” you say, “that doesn’t seem right! I know people who have gotten diabetes because of excessive sugar intake, bad eating habits, or not exercising! That doesn’t sound genetic! What are you talking about?”
Well, that brings me to the second type of diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes comes from insulin resistance, which usually occurs due to excessive sugar intake. 90% of diabetes cases (aka everything that isn’t Type 1) are Type 2, which is why most of what you hear about in the news is Type 2. Type 2 is usually externally influenced in some manner.
In this case, Type 2 diabetes is like burdening the shuttle with increasing amounts of sugar until it collapses. Furthermore, because you have no insurance (good eating habits), you have to pay for it out of pocket with money (your health).
Treatment and Prevention
However, Type 2 is definitely preventable with good eating habits and an awareness of physical health. This is because increased exercise and good eating habits improves your insulin sensitivity, making the uptake of glucose by your body much more efficient.
There are also medications available to remedy Type 2. The most prolific one to date is Metformin, which works by suppressing glucose production by the liver so that glucose buildup is less likely to happen. (Of course, this isn’t perfect; metformin has nasty side effects like diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems.)
I hope this article was informative and taught you how to avoid and treat diabetes!
