About the Disease
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease affecting every organ system. There are two major types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that enables people to get energy from food. Type 1 diabetes usually strikes in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood, but it lasts a lifetime. People with type 1 diabetes must take multiple injections of insulin daily or continually infuse insulin through a pump to survive.
Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which a person’s body still produces insulin but is unable to use it effectively. Type 2 is usually diagnosed in adulthood and does not always require insulin injections. However, increased obesity has led to a recent rise in cases of type 2 diabetes in young adults.
Insulin Does Not Cure It
While insulin allows a person to stay alive, it does not cure diabetes nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating effects, which may include: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputations, heart attack, stroke, and pregnancy complications.
The Scope of Diabetes
- Nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes (7.8 percent of the population):
- Diagnosed: 17.9 million
- Undiagnosed: 5.7 million
- Each year more than 15,000 children are diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. That’s 40 children per day.
- As many as 3 million Americans may have type 1 diabetes.
- In the U.S., a new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 30 seconds; more than 1.6 million people are diagnosed each year.
Warning Signs
Warning signs of type 1 diabetes include: extreme thirst, frequent urination, drowsiness or lethargy, increased appetite, sudden weight loss for no reason, sudden vision changes, sugar in urine, fruity odor on breath, heavy or labored breathing, stupor or unconsciousness. These may occur suddenly.
The Damage Caused by Diabetes
Attacks Many Organ Systems: Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, adult blindness, and non-traumatic amputations and a leading cause of nerve damage, stroke, and heart attacks.
Increased Risk: People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than someone without the disease.
Shortens Life: Diabetes kills one American every three minutes and is the 7th leading cause of death reported in the U.S. Life expectancy for people with diabetes is shortened by an average of 7-10 years.
Difficult to Manage
Despite rigorous attention to maintaining a meal plan and exercise regimen, and always injecting the proper amount of insulin, many other factors can adversely affect efforts to tightly control blood sugar levels including: stress, hormonal changes, periods of growth, physical activity, medications, illness/infection, and fatigue.
Needs Constant Attention
To stay alive, people with type 1 diabetes must take multiple insulin injections daily or continually infuse insulin through a pump. They must also test their blood sugar by pricking their fingers for blood six or more times per day. While trying to balance insulin doses with their food intake and daily activities, people with this form of diabetes must always be prepared for serious hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reactions, both of which can be life-limiting and life threatening.
What is it Like to Have Type 1 Diabetes?
“Both children and adults like me who live with type 1 diabetes need to be mathematicians, physicians, personal trainers and dieticians all rolled into one. We need to be constantly factoring, adjusting, and making frequent finger sticks to check our blood sugars, and giving ourselves multiple daily insulin injections just to stay alive.”
— JDRF International Chairman, Mary Tyler Moore
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To View Current Research: http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?page_id=100686
