What is the difference between type-1 and type-2 diabetes? As well we know that one of the most common disorders & health problems of the endocrine (hormone) system is diabetes (or also familiar known as diabetes mellitus for the formal name). It can occur when the levels of blood sugar are consistently above the level of normal!
Read also factors or conditions that increase your risk of type-2 diabetes!
Read also factors or conditions that increase your risk of type-2 diabetes!
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are two major types that have in common. Generally, type 2 can occur if the body cannot respond well to the function or effects of insulin and type 1 can occur when the body is not able to produce insulin (the pancreas’s inability to create insulin). And the following are pieces of helpful information about the differences between type-1 and type-2 diabetes!
Type 1 diabetes
It is a condition when beta cells ‘the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas’ are destroyed by the body’s own immune system. As well we know, generally the immune system of our body has important function to against any bacteria or virus that can endanger the entire health of the body. But without a clearly reason, the immune system in the body of people with type 1 diabetes can attack and fight off the various cells, including beta cells which eventually will cause a insulin-hormone deficiency.
Furthermore, there is also a different type of diabetes (which can be similar to type-1 diabetes) that known as ‘secondary diabetes’. In the secondary diabetes, the beta cells are not destroyed by the body’s own immune system but due to other factors, particularly like pancreatic surgery or cystic fibrosis.
What else you need to know so thus you can get the clearly difference between type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes:
- Unfortunately, there are still no clearly ways to prevent type 1 diabetes.
- Fortunately, this type is relatively uncommon. In other words we can say that your chance to get this disease is very low (affecting about ‘1 (one)’ in ‘250 (two hundred fifty) Americans’) -- according to ‘webmd’.
- Unlike type 2 diabetes that is more common in older people, there is no a clearly range of age who will get type 1 diabetes, so it may occur at all age (any age). But it usually begins in individuals under the age of 20.
- The chance to get this disease is lower in blacks than in whites, but the chance is equal in women & men.
Type 2 diabetes
In the body of people with type 2 diabetes, the insulin is still produced but the insulin is not properly recognized by the body or the insulin is not produced in the right amount (there is no enough insulin produced), which eventually will make the body cannot use the insulin properly.
And a condition of the insulin that cannot be functioned as it should be will cause the inability of the body to convert the glucose to be energy. Glucose cannot be absorbed as well by the cells to be used to produce energy, which finally can lead to the builds up of sugar in the blood instead of absorbing into the cells and then will increase the blood sugar level.
What else you should know about type 2 diabetes?
- It is relatively more common than type 1 diabetes.
- The cause is not triggered or caused by a single factor but there are likely multiple factors! Therefore, although it is more common but less well understood.
- Unlike type-1 diabetes, it has modifiable risk factors that will be so helpful for the prevention. So there are some helpful ways that you can use to lower your risk of this disease, like increased physical activity (get a regular exercise) or by keeping the ideal weight of your body with a healthier diet program. But there are also some diabetes risk factors that cannot be modified or changed, particularly like ethnicity, age, or diabetes family history.
In addition, the type 2 diabetes symptoms are almost similar with type 1 diabetes signs. Talk and discuss with your doctor for more detailed information about the difference between type-1 and type-2 diabetes, particularly about your risk and what you should do to lower your risk (prevention)!
-- Image credit to ‘shutterstock’ for illustration
