- Diabetes is a serious condition that causes higher than normal blood sugar levels.
- Diabetes occurs when your body cannot make or effectively use its own insulin, a hormone made by special cells in the pancreas
called islets (eye-lets). Insulin serves as a “key” to open your cells, to allow the sugar (glucose) from the food you eat to
enter. Then, your body uses that glucose for energy. - With diabetes, several major things can go wrong to cause diabetes. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are the most common forms of the disease, but there are also other kinds, such as gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy, as well as other forms.
Type 1 Diabetes
- Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes, is the most severe form of the disease.
- About 5% of people who have diabetes have type 1 diabetes, or insulin-dependent diabetes.
- Type 1 diabetes has also been called juvenile diabetes becuse it usually develops in children and teenagers. But people of all ages can develop type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes
- The most common form of diabetes is called type 2 diabetes, or non-insulin dependent diabetes.
- About 90% of people with diabetes have type 2. Type 2 diabetes is also called adult onset diabetes, since it typically develops after age 35. However, a growing number of younger people are now developing type 2 diabetes.
- People with type 2 diabetes are able to produce some of their own insulin. Often, it’s not enough.