Medical Questions » Diabetes Questions » Question No. 254
| Question: | What is the difference between the diabetes children get and that suffered by oldies like me? |
| Answer: | There are two very distinct types of diabetes—juvenile (type one) diabetes and maturity onset (type 2) diabetes. The juvenile form may develop at any time from birth to the thirties, but the most common is between 10 and 20 years of age. Maturity type can start at any time from the thirties onwards, particularly in obese people, but is more common over 60. Juvenile diabetes is more severe and harder to control. It almost invariably requires injections of insulin once or twice a day for the rest of the patients life, as well as a strict diet.
In the mature form, diet and weight loss alone are often sufficient to control the problem, but some sufferers require tablets to be taken regularly, and a small number need insulin injections.
Diabetes is caused by either the failure of the pancreas gland in the centre of the abdomen to produce insulin, or a reduced sensitivity of the cells in the body to insulin. The former tends to be the cause in the juvenile form, and the latter in the mature.
Insulin is essential for cells to take sugar out of the blood and into the cell, and without it, excess amounts of sugar build up in the blood and the cells are starved of a vital energy source.
|
|
|
