Maria Schneider & Shelbie Carr

January 13th, 2014

Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetes

The two most common types of Diabetes are Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes occurs
in most patients when they are children or young adults; this was formerly known as juvenile
onset diabetes. This type occurs when the body -specifically the pancreas- stops producing
insulin. Type 2 diabetes is nine times more common than type 1. This type occurs when the body
doesn't use insulin properly, otherwise known as insulin resistance. Overweight adults or adults
with poor nutrition are most common to develop this disease. As adults gain weight, the pancreas
begins to produce extra insulin to support the body. As time passes with Type 2 diabetes, the
body cant keep up with blood glucose to keep it at normal levels and results in an insulin
imbalance.

There are many causes of type 1 diabetes but no known long term treatments. Insulin is a
hormone that converts sugar and most starches to energy. When insulin isnt present too much or
too little carbohydrates can be life threatening.Glucose builds up without the presence of Insulin
and the only short term way to maintain this disease if by insulin shots provided to the body.Type
2 diabetes also has no permanent cure. Management of this disease is possible with healthy
eating, regular exercise and monitoring of blood sugar. There are also medications and insulin
therapy which both help to keep the body healthy.

Diagnosis of diabetes can be identified with a

variety of symptoms. There are many symptoms related
to Type 1 diabetes; they include: blurry vision,
drowsiness, itchy dry skin, tingling feet. Glucose/sugar
spills into urine without insulin and is then flushed out
into the body, which results in dehydration, and increased
thirst. A Glycated Hemoglobin (A1C) test is given in
order to diagnose type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This test
indicates the your average blood sugar levels for the past
two or three months and if after two tests you have an
A1C level of 6.5% or higher you are considered to have
diabetes. A level of 5.7% or lower is considered normal.
Genetic traits can be found in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. There are fewer genetic
traits passed down for Type 1 diabetes than type 2. For type 1, the risk factors are most often
inherited by both parents. Most who are at risk for type 1 diabetes have a trigger, this could be;
cold weather, viruses, solid food earlier in life. Many children who are breastfed are less likely to
have this disease. Type 2 diabetes has a stronger link to family history. Environmental factors
also affect the onset of this type of diabetes. Most families that are obese will cause their children
to be obese due to environmental factors, and habits developed during childhood.

There are few preventions for diabetes, but screening can be done to identify the diseases.
Type 1 diabetes is more severe than type 2 in the sense that, currently there is no way to prevent
the disease from attacking the body. Blood tests can be conducted to test for this disease but it
can be triggered at any time in a persons life. Early screening can be done to identify if early
onset diabetes could be prevalent in the body. Recently the American Diabetes Association
(ADA), the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the Center for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) highly recommend that anyone asymptomatic adult with high
blood pressure or adult over 45 should be checked regularly. Any person under the age of 45 with
additional risk factors, such as obesity, high blood pressure, family history, or other clinical
symptoms associated with insulin resistance should also be tested.
With a disease like diabetes, the only course of rehabilitation is exercise. This applies to
both people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It is very important that people are able to use
exercise to help control the glucose levels in their bloodstreams. Without the management of
these levels their blood vessels can be damaged and lead to more complications. Exercise is there
to help decrease glucose levels and blood pressure, improve balance, energy level, and activity
tolerance and decrease joint pain. There are many programs out there that are individualized and

can assist anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes with the incorporation of exercise into their daily
lives.
As time has progressed, we have seen an increase in the option for curing diabetes. For
type 1 diabetes researchers have turned their focus away from a transplantation of the cell of the
pancreas that produced the insulin and more toward the attacks on the bodies islet cells.
Researchers have become more interested in why the body is attacking the cells and how they
might be able to safely block the attacks. They are also looking into how they might be able to
regenerate the lost islet cells rather than transplanting them because there is less of a risk for
rejection. This would be done from the use of stem cells, embryonic or adult cells or even other
ways of engineering the cells from surviving islet cells. As for type 2 diabetes, researchers are
consumed by the idea that inflammation is to blame. Currently they have been using different
anti-inflammatory medication to try and decrease the number of incidents of type 2 diabetes; in
addition, they are also trying to understand how the islet cells are malfunctioning and have
considered it to even be genetic.
When people are diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, they are in for a long journey.
People with this disease must manage it around the clock and tend to be at risk for other related
diseases, such as thyroid disease, celiac disease or Addisons disease for people with type 1
diabetes or hepatitis B for people with type 2 diabetes. Everyday is a challenge for someone
diagnosed with type 1 or 2 diabetes, but if they are cautious they are able to avoid complications
that might lead to one of the related diseases above.
Diabetes has had an enormous effect on many people, both type 1 and type 2. It is said
that as many as three million Americans alone have type 1 diabetes and each year more than
15,000 children and 15,000 adults are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the United States.
Among the largest amount of people diagnosed with diabetes 85% are adults and 15% are
children. It has been said that, in the cases of type 2 diabetes, 1.7 million new cases are
diagnosed in one year just within the United States. Among these new cases men make up
majority. People estimate that there are 29.1 million people living in the United States with type
2 diabetes and 8.1 million are undiagnosed or unaware of their condition. Type 2 diabetes seems
to be prevalent among Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans
compared to Caucasians and there are higher rates of Asian/Pacific Islanders being diagnosed
with type 2 diabetes between the ages 10 to 19 compared to any other ethnic groups. Regardless
the number, both people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes make up a large portion of the United
States population and are unfortunately growing as the days go by.

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