What Are The 3 Types Of Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic and lifelong disease that affects the ability of your body to turn food into energy. Insulin is the hormone that regulates how your body uses glucose as energy. However, if your body does not produce enough insulin or does not use insulin effectively, you develop diabetes.

Types Of Diabetes

There are different types of diabetes depending on how much insulin your pancreas produces or how your body uses insulin. The three main types are:

Type 1 diabetes

Also known as juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent diabetes, this type of diabetes is mainly diagnosed in children, young adults, and teenagers. Only 5-10% of the people with diabetes have this type of diabetes.

It happens due to an autoimmune condition where the body attacks the pancreas, making it unable to produce insulin.

Another cause could be faulty beta cells, which the pancreas uses to make insulin. Type 1 diabetes symptoms develop fast and could be fatal. Some symptoms include extreme hunger, frequent urination, weakness and fatigue, increased thirst, blurred vision, unintended weight loss, and bedwetting in children.

Once you develop type 1 diabetes, you have to take insulin daily, which is why it is known as insulin-dependent. To administer the inulin, you need to use injections or insulin pumps. Currently, nobody knows the cure or how to prevent type 1 diabetes.

You can also manage the disease by living a healthy lifestyle, getting regular health checkups, and managing your blood sugar levels.

Type 2 diabetes

This is the most common kind of diabetes in adults, usually in 95% of the adults who have diabetes. This type of diabetes happens when the pancreas does not make enough insulin or when it does not use the insulin effectively.

Unlike type 1 diabetes, the symptoms of type 2 diabetes develop over time, which means that you might not notice the signs. If you have any risk factors of getting the disease, ensure your blood sugar levels are tested often.

Type 2 diabetes mainly occurs in people who have insulin resistance or obesity. While it may not be as aggressive as type 1 diabetes, it could become fatal if not correctly cared for and medicated.

You can prevent or delay the progression of the disease by losing excess weight, exercising, quitting smoking and excess alcohol consumption, and eating healthy.

Gestational diabetes

This type of diabetes occurs in pregnant women, especially during the second and third trimesters. It happens because of metabolic demands, hormonal changes, and environmental and genetic factors. If you get this type of diabetes, it increases your child’s chances of getting health complications.

The high blood sugar levels in the mother’s blood get circulated into the placenta and could affect the child. The good news is that this type of diabetes goes away once you give birth. However, it increases your chances of getting type 2 diabetes in the future.

Your child could also become obese in their early years or as a teen and also have high chances of getting type 2 diabetes in the future.

If you have developed diabetes or have any risk factors, you need to look for diabetes info on different platforms to know about the symptoms and how to manage it. One of the best online sources for diabetes info is Tandem Diabetes Care which has information about all types of diabetes.