Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic (life-long) autoimmune disease that prevents your pancreas from making insulin.

Insulin is an important hormone that regulates the amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood. Under normal circumstances, insulin functions in the following steps:

• Your body breaks down the food you eat into glucose (sugar), which is your body’s main source of energy.
• Glucose enters your bloodstream, which signals your pancreas to release insulin.
• Insulin helps glucose in your blood enter your muscle, fat and liver cells so they can use it for energy or store it for later use.
• When glucose enters your cells and the levels in your bloodstream decrease, it signals your pancreas to stop producing insulin.

If you don’t have enough insulin, too much sugar builds up in your blood, causing hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), and your body can’t use the food you eat for energy. This can lead to serious health problems or even death if it’s not treated. People with Type 1 diabetes need synthetic insulin every day in order to live and be healthy.

Type 1 diabetes was previously known as juvenile diabetes and insulin-dependent diabetes.

What is the difference between Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes?

While Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes are both forms of diabetes mellitus (as opposed to diabetes insipidus) that lead to hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), they are distinct from each other.

In Type 2 diabetes (T2D), your pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin and/or your body doesn’t always use that insulin as it should — usually due to insulin resistance. Lifestyle factors, including obesity and a lack of exercise, can contribute to the development of Type 2diabetes as well as genetic factors.

In Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas doesn’t make any insulin. It’s caused by an autoimmune reaction.

Type 2 diabetes usually affects older adults, though it’s becoming more common in children. Type 1 diabetes usually develops in children or young adults, but people of any age can get it.

Type 2 diabetes is much more common than Type 1 diabetes.

Who does Type 1 diabetes affect?

Anyone at any age can develop Type 1 diabetes (T1D), though the most common age at diagnosis is between the ages of 4 to 6 and in early puberty (10 to 14 years).

In the United States, people who are non-Hispanic white are most likely to get Type 1 diabetes, and it affects people assigned female at birth and people assigned male at birth almost equally.

While you don’t have to have a family member with Type 1 diabetes to develop the condition, having a first-degree family member (parent or sibling) with Type 1 diabetes increases your risk of developing it.

How common is Type 1 diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes is relatively common. In the United States, approximately 1.24 million people live with Type 1 diabetes, and that number is expected to grow to five million by 2050.

Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases that affect children in the United States, though adults can be diagnosed with the disease as well.