Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 is sometimes referred to as Juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependant diabetes mellitus (shortened to IDDM).
It is the one most people think of when Diabetes is mentioned, despite the fact that it is less common than Type 2.
Why is this?
Well it is the one that is found in children, teenagers and young adults, hence the earlier name of Juvenile diabetes. Any illness that affects kids tends to tugs at the heart strings and get more publicity than that of adults.
It is an autoimmune disease, the persons own immune system, which usually defends one against invading organisms, has got confused and now thinks that certain cells in the pancreas, the beta cells which produce insulin, are foreign objects that need to be destroyed. In other words the body turns on itself.
No-one is quite sure why this happens but genetics, an environmental trigger or a viral infection have been put forwards as possibilities. There is nothing anyone can do or could have done to prevent themselves getting this disease.
The development of symptoms is fast, measured in days or weeks at most.
Once the beta cells have been destroyed no insulin is produced, so Type 1's need to get their insulin from outside by means of injections or an insulin pump.
There is no way out of this, one cannot live without insulin.
Type 1 can be tough on both parent and child.
It is no easy task for a parent to keep a child on the straight and narrow when all his/her friends are eating what they want when they want. And other adults often do not help.
My daughter had a type 1 friend through school and the places she could go and stay for a weekend were limited because so many of the adults could not, or would not, understand that she had specific dietary requirements, meals needed to be fairly regular and it was not helping to say "Go on, have just a piece of cake, or a small chocolate bar, a little won't hurt you?"
Adolescence can be even more difficult.
Puberty tends to upset what were previously well controlled blood sugars and in many teenagers a resentment of their disease occurs.
When you are starting to assert your independence it is very trying to be tied to a regime.
For the parents it is just as difficult to cut their adolescent some slack. They have fought for years to keep him/her healthy and suddenly he/she seems hell bent on self destruction. Sometimes very fine lines have to be walked to keep harmony in the family!
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