Type Casting

People always seem shocked when they learn that my 5 year old son is diabetic. I get comments that range from "but he's so young" to "he's not overweight though!" I think most people automatically think of Type-2 diabetes when they first find out about Leo. There are 3 main types of diabetes. Type-1, Type-2 and Gestational.

I suppose I should share a bit about what diabetes is before I jump into the different types. Diabetes refers to the inability to use our body's insulin to move glucose into our cells. When we eat or drink, our body breaks down our food into 3 basic things; fat, protein, and carbohydrates. The carbs are broken down further into glucose, the body's main source of energy. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows the sugar from our food to be transported from the bloodstream into the body's cells to fuel them. Without insulin, the glucose stays in the blood, starving the cells of energy, and is eventually passed through the urine. Check out the video from the American Diabetes Association too!

Okay so there you go. A VERY basic overview of how this stuff works. Now on to the differences between the three types.

Type-2 diabetes is rampant in America. It is common among older folks as well as obese individuals. Type-2's still make insulin but their body doesn't utilize it as well as it should. It has also been called "insulin resistant" diabetes. Most of the time, type-2 can be controlled by changing the diet and making healthy lifestyle changes that include that dreaded thing, exercise.

Gestational diabetes is when a woman develops diabetes while pregnant, usually after the 24th week. The hormones produced by the placenta can sometimes prevent the mother's body from using her own insulin efficiently. Gestational diabetes can affect the baby and can raise the mother's risk of developing diabetes after her baby is born. Usually, though, the diabetes goes away after delivery.

Type-1 is what Leo, Shannyn and I struggle with daily. It used to be called Juvenile Diabetes but the name was changed because young adults and even those in their 30s and 40s are being diagnosed. Newer research is pushing the classification of type-1 diabetes into an auto-immune disorder. Leo's body has attacked his pancreas and destroyed the cells that produce insulin. He needs injections of synthetic insulin to convert his food into energy. These injections can also do him harm though. In a non-diabetic, when the pancreas releases too much insulin, the body can absorb the excess. However, with synthetic, the insulin has a "shelf life" within the body and will continue to work for up to 24 hours depending on the type of insulin. (Yes there's more than 1 type of insulin too, but I'll get into that later.) Sometimes too much insulin is floating around and Leo has hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and sometimes there isn't enough insulin which causes hyperglycemia (high blood sugar.) These both have their own set of nasty symptoms and results. Another post about hypo and hyperglycemia is in order I think!

I encourage anyone who wants more information on the types of diabetes, the risk factors, symptoms and stats to visit either the American Diabetes Association website at www.diabetes.org or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at www.jdrf.org. I got most of my info for this post from these 2 sites.