WHAT IS DIABETES? TYPE 1 AND 2

Diabetes: What is "diabetes"?

What is "diabetes"?

Diabetes is a disease that means the blood sugar levels in the blood are too high. And the reason that's important is because all of us need some blood sugar in our blood; that's how your brain gets fuel, gets energy. Sugar is necessary. It's energy. But in diabetes, what happens is the blood sugar levels go way too high. And that means two things for a person with diabetes: one is the body doesn't get enough energy, and second of all, it means that that high blood sugar level caused by diabetes starts causing damage, and over time it damages the eyes, the kidneys, the nerves, and can cause really serious complications. Treating diabetes means lowering the blood sugar levels and then keeping them normal forever.

Diabetes: What is the difference between "type 1" and "type 2" diabetes?

What is the difference between "type 1" and "type 2" diabetes?

There are two kinds of diabetes and it's very important that people know what kind they have if they have diabetes, and even what kind of diabetes they are at risk of getting. Type 1 is the least common kind and we used to call type 1 diabetes 'juvenile onset diabetes' because we only thought kids got it. However, in my practice, I've seen people as old as 94 years get type 1 diabetes, because what type 1 diabetes means is that there is an abnormal response in the body. The body makes what we call antibodies (the infection-fighting cells), that destroy the Beta cells (the insulin-creating cells) in the pancreas so the body stops making insulin. When you have type 1 diabetes, you must take insulin injections for the rest of your life. That's what type 1 diabetes means; not making enough insulin, meaning the body can't use the sugar that's in your blood. Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common kind. It's a world-wide epidemic. It is really one of the most serious diseases of our time. In many cases type 2 diabetes occurs in people who have a family history of diabetes, and it also occurs because many people develop it as they gain weight and become sedentary. We used to call it 'adult onset diabetes' because we thought that older people got it, but the oldest case I know of adult onset diabetes is in a two-year-old. So, we know that age doesn't really matter. What matters, in many cases, is one's habits; one's health habits. That is, whether one keeps fit and active and takes care of themselves, or over time becomes heavier, less active, and then develops type 2 diabetes.



Diabetes: Can a person have both type 1 and type 2 diabetes?

Can a person have both type 1 and type 2 diabetes?

It turns out that you can have both 1 and type 2 diabetes. In order to understand this, though, you actually have to understand a little bit more about type 2 diabetes, because type 2 diabetes is probably an adaptation for survival. It probably is a set of genes that helped our ancestors to survive famine, because back in the old days we didn't have food everywhere. We went through periods of eating and then fasting: literally not having food for weeks. Therefore we needed to store fat very efficiently. The place that our bodies store fat the best is right in the centre, and that's called central obesity. That storage form of fat is right there, right next to your liver, your pancreas and your stomach, and it's great. It immediately can put sugar back into your blood if you're starving. However, if you're living in a society, like our modern societies, where food isn't an issue for most people (not everybody, but for most) that central fat just grows and grows, and now instead of becoming a good thing it becomes a bad thing. All that fat by your liver causes it to make abnormal cholesterol particles and causes it to become inflamed; all these things start happening that cause diabetes but also the risk for heart attack and stroke. So people with type 2 diabetes and central obesity, and that's most people with type 2 diabetes, have a risk for heart attack and stroke. So, you can have type 1 diabetes, meaning your pancreas doesn't work anymore because it was attacked by antibodies, and you can come from a family where, say, your mother or father had type 2 diabetes; you can have central fat, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and it means you have both type 1 and type 2 in a way. However, what's really important is not the names 'type 1' and 'type 2', but that if people have central fat, they need to be extra careful to avoid having heart attacks and strokes.