Types of Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease that has become more common in recent years. The main reason for different types of diabetes is a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, although genetics also play an important role. Up next, we will tell you what diabetes it is and the types that exist.
Did you know that more than 100 million US adults have diabetes or are at risk of developing diabetes? This means that this disease affects almost 10 percent of the country’s population. In addition, these numbers are more prominent among retired people.
What is diabetes?
In a very simple way, we can say that diabetes is a disease characterized by a high content of glucose in the blood. This is due to the improper function of the pancreas, which is the organ responsible for producing insulin.
As a result, the pancreas produces a deficit of insulin, which means that the level of glucose in the blood isn’t properly regulated. Therefore, this task must be done artificially with the help of either, injections or pills.
Diabetes can occur at different stages in life and with different intensities. Based on that, this disease is classified by different types that we will explain below.
Different types of diabetes
Type one diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes, means that the pancreas doesn’t produce insulin. People suffering from this type of diabetes have to inject insulin on a daily basis. Although it can happen at any age, it usually appears during the first years of life or during adolescence.
This type of diabetes is easier to diagnose since there’s no insulin in the body. In many cases, they can detect it in the first months of life. Sometimes you can choose to use an insulin pump to make the administration of doses easier.
Thanks to medical advances and the greater variety of food that’s available in supermarkets, it’s increasingly easy for people with type one diabetes to live a life that’s practically the same as people who don’t suffer from this disease.
Type two diabetes
Unlike type one diabetes, in this situation, the pancreas does produce insulin. Except it doesn’t do it in sufficient amounts, or in the worst case, it doesn’t have the desired effect. This type of diabetes also requires treatment and is linked to a strong genetic factor.
Although genetics play a fundamental role, one’s lifestyle also influences the onset of diabetes. This disease usually appears more frequently in those people who lead a sedentary life and are obese or overweight.
In fact, 80 percent of people suffering from type two diabetes are overweight. Its treatment involves pills or insulin depending on the severity of diabetes and the person’s resistance to the drugs.
Until a few years ago, this type of diabetes was known as “adult-onset diabetes”, but this name has been left aside. This is due to the fact that even though it has a higher incidence among people over 40 years old, more and more young people are suffering from it.
Gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes usually appears during the second half of pregnancy. Far from wanting to cause alarm, it’s necessary to point out that it’s a very common problem among pregnant women. Depending on the intensity of diabetes, it will be necessary to treat it one way or another.
A medical check should be scheduled to ensure that diabetes doesn’t pose a risk to the baby or the mother. In most cases, it’s enough to just reduce the consumption of sugar in meals and replace it with natural calorie-free sweeteners. This means that the mother to be should be very careful with any typical pregnancy cravings.
The O’Sullivan test usually detects gestational diabetes between the 12th and 24th week of pregnancy. It’s important to take the test, especially for women who have already had this problem in previous pregnancies.