Blog Week #1: Admiring our Differences

Before we get into the differences among the diabetes community, let's have a quick overview of what happens in our bodies.

When you eat, your body absorbs the nutrients in your food and takes them to various places in your cells. One of these nutrients is a carbohydrate. Carbs are turned to glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream, and are then taken into your cells to be used as energy. Insulin, a hormone released by the pancreas, acts as a key to unlock your cells and allow the glucose into your cells. Without adequate insulin (type 1) or without cooperation from your cells (type 2), glucose will stay in your bloodstream and build to dangerously high levels. This is the root definition of diabetes.

The basic types of diabetes can be broken down as follows:

• Type 1, in which the pancreas produces little-to-no insulin. Type 1s must take insulin through shots or insulin pump therapy to replace it in their body. The amount of insulin required by each person is different based on weight, age, diet, activity level, etc.
• Type 2, in which the body gradually loses its ability to effectively use its own insulin through either poor usage by cells or insulin resistance. This can be treated through some combination of diet, exercise, oral medicines or insulin shots. Each individual's treatment is personal and varied.
• Gestational diabetes, in which a pregnant woman develops some degree of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Generally, pregnant women are placed on insulin therapy for the safety of their fetus. High glucose levels during pregnancy can lead to large babies and birth defects. Although pregnant women with any kind of diabetes are classified as high risk, they can have normal, healthy pregnancies as long as they monitor their blood glucose closely.
• Latent Autoimmune/LADA/Type 1.5, in which an adult develops a combination of symptoms from both types 1 and 2. These symptoms can be slow-onset like type 2 and may eventually adopt the appearance of type 1. Patients with this form are often misdiagnosed.

Although there are many different types and treatments, we all have the same goal: to have healthy and normal lives.

As I admire our differences, I see that it doesn't really matter what type you have or what treatment you use, as long as you do what you need to do to stay healthy.

*A note to anyone who found this post from the D-Blog list: I realize this isn't 100% on topic, but since this blog is new, I thought this would be a good topic to personalize and use as a tool for my friends who read but may have no idea about diabetes. While I absolutely admire all the bloggers I read, I felt a post about them might be lost on my readers.