Will she outgrow it...

or get rid of it if she loses weight?

Um...no!

If I had a *penny* for every time I have heard either of those two questions I'd be a rich woman.

There are 2 *main* types of diabetes; Type 1 and Type 2. There are other types, but these are the two main ones that the majority of people think of when they hear the word diabetes. Actually, most people think of Type 2 (or Adult Onset) which is why we get the two above questions.

Every 24 hours in the United States, there are 4230 people diagnosed with diabetes. Roughly 40 of those are Type 1, or less than 1%!

The American Diabetes Association has this to say about Type 2 diabetes:

In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy. When you eat food, the body breaks down all of the sugars and starches into glucose, which is the basic fuel for the cells in the body. Insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells.


In contrast, they say this about Type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar (glucose), starches and other food into energy needed for daily life.

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Insulin is REQUIRED for life. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas still produces insulin, but either the body is not able to use it, the body is resistant to it, or the pancreas does not produce *enough* insulin, so the glucose levels remain high in the blood stream. Diet & exercise are both able to control Type 2 diabetes to a great extent. Some times people have to go on oral medications that allow the body to use the insulin it produces. Sometimes, when not enough insulin is produced or the body is resistant to insulin, injections need to be given. In the majority of cases, weight loss alone CAN reverse the disease.

In Type 1 diabetes, because of an auto-immune reaction (I'll discuss the auto-immune process in a later blog entry), the pancreas no longer produces insulin at all. None. With no insulin at all, life ceases to exist. The amount of time for death to occur once the pancreas no longer produces any insulin at all varies from a few hours to a few days. But death is inevitable. The only thing that can buy a person time with the absence of insulin would be a diet with ZERO carbohydrates (no sugar, vegetables, grains). A diet such as this, in and of itself, would eventually lead to death through starvation.

I am very thankful for synthetic insulin because without it my daughter would be dead. Insulin is NOT a cure, it is life support. Her pancreas is still broken. She will always have Type 1 diabetes. But synthetic insulin keeps her alive daily and for that I am very, very grateful.