What is Diabetes Mellitus?

What You Need to Know About Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes is a type of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by the loss of beta cells found in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.

These cells play a very important role in producing insulin for the body. The destruction of the beta cells is generally caused by the body’s own immune system and can lead to large insulin deficiencies.

This in turn, can also bring about increased concentrations of glucose in the urine and in the blood. The most common symptoms of type 1 diabetes include increased thirst, hunger and abnormally frequent urination.

Causes of Type 1 Diabetes

Up to date, medical professionals still cannot point out the exact cause of type 1 diabetes.

However, studies have shown that the condition is actually triggered by a combination of complex factors – such as genetic susceptibility, exposure to certain antigens and specific diabetogenic triggers.

Other studies have also reported that exposure to certain environmental factors can also leave other people more susceptible to the disease than others.
Type 1 Diabetes is considered to be a polygenic disease – which means that it is triggered by a variety of factors, depending on a patient’s genetic build-up.

A child who has a diabetic father has a 10% chance of acquiring the disease, while those who have diabetic mothers have a 4% chance of getting diabetes (given that the mother is 25 years old or younger when the child was born).
Another very popular theory that seeks to explain the cause of the disease states that type 1 diabetes could be caused by viral infection.

The virus may trigger a kind of immune response that can attack the beta cells in the pancreas. Two of the most common culprits are the Rubella and the Coxsackie virus.

However, this does not hold true for every case. There are some patients who acquire the virus but do not develop type 1 diabetes.

Again, this could be attributed to genetic variability and susceptibility.
Recent studies have shown that diet can also play a very important part in triggering the disease. For instance, high wheat diets show a very high correlation to the development of type 1 diabetes.

Still, this relationship is very poorly understood and is currently a subject of many ongoing medical studies.

Other research studies have also revealed that certain antigens found in cow’s milk may also illicit a kind of immune response that can also lead to the destruction of the beta cells – a theory that is also a subject to many ongoing studies and tests.

Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis

Type 1 Diabetes is basically diagnosed by a recurring or persisting case of hyperglycemia.

There are now certain definitive diagnostic tests that can measure glucose levels in the blood – such as fasting plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin.

Patients who acquire this kind of diabetes can also develop ketoacidosis which is the accumulation of ketones in the body.
Although type 1 diabetes appears only in 10% of the reported cases, this can be a very fatal disease if left untreated.

Fortunately, there are now plenty of options that type 1 diabetes patients can opt to have for treatment.