Two Types of Diabetes: The Differences

Diabetes is becoming increasingly common among the general population, especially among the urban population due to the adoption of sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy dietary habits in modern work culture. People though are getting more aware of the situation and trying to counter the scenario with consumption of healthy foods and switching to meals and diet plans that are diabetic friendly.

Even if you are not diabetic, the threat always looms on you and it often becomes frustrating to monitor calories at every instance of taking food. The associated threat of obesity plays a crucial role as well, prompting you to closely monitor your daily calorie intake. Balancing your blood sugar is indeed essential, particularly if you have a history of diabetes in your family and you are reaching 40. High blood sugar level has severe health consequences that may include hardening of arteries, kidney failures, nerve damage and other serious disorders that cannot be ignored.

You will know about healthy diet tips to counter diabetes in the future posts, but first let us have some knowledge on the two different types of diabetes that can happen to you.

Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

There are two types of Diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2, although the common factors between the two is the inability to utilize glucose, i.e. the sugar in common language, as energy for daily body functions.

Type 1 Diabetes: This is also known as childhood onset diabetes as it sets in early stages of life and often children get affected. In case of Type 1 diabetes your insulin level is always low, making you rely on insulin injections for blood sugar regulation. Insulin hormone is necessary in aiding sugars to enter inside the cells and start its function. Only 5 to 10% of the total diabetic patients fall in this category and most of the diabetes patients suffer from Type 2 diabetes that was only prevalent in adult human being. But, in recent years Type 2 diabetes is also affecting the adolescent population, a serious concern indeed.

Type 2 Diabetes: In Type 2 diabetes the insulin production level is not affected, but the cells responsible for insulin absorption get resistant to insulin. As a consequence insulin cannot function properly to get the blood sugars into the cells, thus the sugars remain in blood. Thus, Type 2 diabetic patients have high levels of blood sugar and require adequate treatment or control measures to normalize the procedure.

Moreover, if you are not checking your blood sugar level at regular intervals you may not know whether you are diabetic or not. Often there are no early symptoms of diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes cases are common. Uncontrolled high blood sugar level may give symptoms like thirst, blurred vision, fatigue, and urination at frequent intervals. Long term consequences of diabetes involve severe consequences such as kidney failures, nerve damages, heart diseases and vision disorders.

So, diabetes should not be taken lightly and adequate, prompt action is advised. The good news is that Type 2 diabetes can be prevented and reversed in most of the instances. Unfortunately, still there is no such cure for Type 1 cases, but their insulin intake can be reduced. In both the cases, diet plays the central role in controlling diabetes. We will look into some interesting diets (delicious and effective) to control diabetes in future posts.