Jan

Type 1 diabetes not only happens in children

30,000 Americans are diagnosed with type 1 every year. Only 13,000 are children. Mary Tyler Moore is an example of one person who was diagnosed with “juvenile” diabetes as an adult at the age of 30. That is one reason juvenile diabetes is now called type 1, because of misconceptions like this.

Other people diagnosed as adults: former Miss America Nicole Johnson and Olympic swimmer Gary Hall, Jr. I could list many more…

Also, just because someone takes insulin does not mean they have type 1 diabetes. Type 1 is an auto-immune disease where the body’s immune system destroys the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin.

Furthermore, with type 1 diabetes blood glucose fluctations are much different than with type 2 diabetes. Type 1 is much more labile than type 2 since you do not produce any insulin at all. Even with type 2, your body is still able to compensate for things like stress, illness, etc. With type 1 you can have blood glucose fluctuations as a result of stress, illness, hormones, fatigue, etc. etc.

My husband’s blood glucose increases when he gets overheated, stressed, or when he is sick. I’m talking fluctations up to 200, 300, etc. People with type 2 that have beta cell function do not have major fluctuations like this. Numbers like this are not because of something my husband has done “wrong”. My husband wears an insulin pump and checks his blood sugar about 10x a day. It is still totally impossible to duplicate the function of an organ that works so perfectly in a person who has functioning beta cells.

The following link is from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s web site. Note that it says type 1 happens in adults, also. And, that type 1 is more difficult to manage with fluctuations as a result of stress, hormonal changes, periods of growth, physical activity, medications, illness/infection, and fatigue.

http://www.jdrf.org/living_w_diabetes/type1facts.php

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