Diabetes is a lifelong disease that can affect both children and adults. This disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. It claims about 178,000 lives each year. Type one diabetes, also known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, usually occurs in people less than thirty years of age, but it also may appear at any age. Diabetes is a very serious disease with many life threatening consequences, but if it is taken care of properly, diabetics can live a normal life. Diabetes is a disease that causes an abnormally high level of sugar, or glucose, to build up in the blood. Glucose comes from food we consume and also from our liver and muscles. Blooddelivers glucose to all the cells in the body. In people without diabetes, the pancreas makes a chemical called insulin which is released into the blood stream. Insulin helps the glucose from the food get into cells. When the pancreas doesn’t make insulin, it can’t get into the cells and the insulin stays in the blood stream. The blood glucose level gets very high, causing the person to have type one diabetes. There are many symptoms of type one diabetes. They include drinking irritability, excessive urination, extreme weight loss, feeling very hungry or tired, sores that don’t heal and blurry eyesight. The cause of type one diabetes is unknown, although genetic tendency and childhood infections are two possibilities. The pancreas undergoes a change and cells that normally produce insulin are destroyed. This may be a result of the body’s own immune system believing the pancreas is a foreign organ. Also, type one diabetes often appears at times of physical stress and during illness when the body produces extra glucose. Although diabetes affects many peoples daily lives, it is a disease that can be controlled. But if it’s not taken care of, uncontrolled diabetes can damage a persons’ vision, cause nerve damage and infections to the feet. Also, it can cause poor blood circulation and kidney disease. Many of these problems can be prevented by having a low fat, low alcohol diet, maintaining a reasonable body mass, and working out thirty minutes five days a week. Performing these activities can also help reduce the risk of getting diabetes. There are many risk factors that one should take into consideration. Having high blood pressure, being inactive and overweight are both very high risk factors. If a family member has diabetes or if a person is African, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino descent, they also have a greater risk of the disease. Diet is the most important part of diabetes management. Without a proper diet, the amount of drugs and insulin needed to control blood sugar levels may be inadequate. Diet controlhelps reduce high blood sugar and reduce the risk of complications like heart attacks and high blood pressure. It also helps achieve ideal body weight and reduces the problems associated with obesity. The most important aspect of dietary management of diabetes is carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates found in breads, cereals, potatoes, vegetables and other foods raise the blood sugarapproximately the same amount as simple sugars. Carbohydrates and the glucose they generate are an energy source. Insulin produced by the pancreas enables our cells to be able to burn this carbohydrate generated glucose. This is why determining the amount of carbohydrates, in a meal, is so important for people with diabetes. Carbohydrates translate to a rise in blood glucose levels. Knowing the carbohydrates content of a meal, is the key to determining what amount of insulin must be taken.Diabetics with type one diabetes have many options for treatment. The number one way diabetics inject insulin into their bodies, are through jet injections. They are pressurized jet injectors that send insulin through the persons skin. Another option is an insulin pen. It looks likea normal pen. They are for people that are away from home and don’t want to bring insulin andsyringes along. A less common way of injecting insulin into the body is through an insulin pump. They are becoming more and more popular. They are worn on a persons side. It sends insulin from a storage container through a plastic tube into the persons skin. The pump works twenty-four hours a day, sending drops of insulin into the person’s skin. The pumps purpose is to deliver the insulin more precisely.There are many new technologies that researchers are working on. The islet transplantation is a procedure that replace insulin-producing cells destroyed by the disease and restore normal blood sugar levels. This transplant is not performed on everyone, but on select patients with type one diabetes. This treatment is still experimental, with many problems to overcome, but the islet transplantation has been improving since the introduction of the EdmontonProtocol. More then three hundred patients have received islet transplantation and most of them have enjoyed being insulin independent and say it has improved the quality of their life.Many therapies are going to be available to patients in the next few years. Glucose monitoring is a technique that monitors the glucose level without the use of needles. Another type of therapy is the artificial pancreas. It combines glucose sensing and insulin delivery through a closed loop system. Mimicking the human pancreas, this therapy would register the blood glucose levels and in response deliver the right amount of insulin. Diabetes is a very serious disease that takes many lives each year. It is a lifelong disease that can be fatal to both adults and children if it is uncontrolled. Diabetes does not have to be fatal if certain precautions are taken. If diabetics maintain a healthy diet and watch their carbohydrate intake they can keep their diabetes under control. Monitoring blood sugar is also necessary to live a healthy life. If diabetics know the right way of maintaining their diabetes, they can live a very normal and active
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