Diabetes 101

Well, I hope that you will continue to "humor" me.

Since I'm on the rant about diabetes I thought I might educate you a bit.

I met a lady the other day that used to work at one of the area hospitals. She was the diabetes educator and I was telling her our story and we were commenting on how amazed we were that people really don't understand or know what diabetes is or what it isn't.

So, I decided I would spend a few posts talking about this, since it is something that has touched our family, something we have become well educated on (not because we wanted to but because we had to) and something that I feel really needs to be more understood.

I will start by explaining what diabetes is and then talk about some common myths.

Diabetes: The word "diabetes" is borrowed from the Greek word meaning "a siphon." The 2nd-century A.D. Greek physician, Aretus the Cappadocian, named the condition "diabetes." He explained that patients with it had polyuria (a lot of peeing) and "passed water like a siphon." When the word "diabetes" is used alone, it refers to diabetes mellitus. The word "mellitus" means "sweet". There's a lot of interesting facts here, but one I found fascinating is many years ago before they had meters to test blood sugars or even dip sticks to test the sugar in urine, they discovered that the urine of diabetic persons would attract ants. I guess because of the excess sugar. Interesting...

Anyway, there are two main types of diabetes mellitus -- insulin-requiring type 1 diabetes and adult-onset type 2 diabetes. These two conditions are distinct and different diseases in themselves. There is also a gestational diabetes which occurs during pregnancy but this would still fall under the category of type 2 diabetes.

Okay, so what are the differences between these two diseases? First off, Diabetes Mellitus is a disease that affects that body’s ability to produce insulin and/or the body’s ability to use it. Insulin is a hormone that is made by the pancreas which helps the body store energy (glucose) for later use. Like all hormones, our body needs to keep these levels balanced to prevent damage to other organs. Current acceptable blood glucose levels should be between 80 and 120 before meals. Unfortunately with untreated diabetes, these levels can get extremely high and become life-threatening.

The difference between the two - Type 1 diabetes is where the body no longer produces insulin at all. For some reason, (doctors and scientists do not know why) the pancreas does not make insulin at all. This can be caused by a number of factors which are unknown, but there are theories. The most popular theory is that there is a virus that attacks the insulin producing cells in the pancreas (called the islets of Langerhans) and destroys them - an autoimmune process. But for whatever reason, the pancreas does not produce anymore insulin, therefore blood sugars rise to dangerous levels. There are many things I find interesting here: many juvenile diabetics (another term for Type 1 diabetes - because many who are diagnosed are young) are diagnosed at around 6 or 7 years old. Why is this? I have wondered if it's related to immunizations. Is something causing the body to attack itself? Oh well, that's another topic altogether, isn't it??

I'm not going to bore you with all the details of this process and what happens to the sugar in the body and how the cells can't function, etc...; it really is quite fascinating how it all works. But suffice it to say, Type 1 diabetics do not make insulin, period. This is what Kendall, our son, has. Type 1 diabetes is not curable.

Type 2 diabetes is altogether different. Type 2 diabetics do not make enough insulin to support the body. Usually the reason is being overweight. Their bodies just do not produce enough insulin to be able to circulate throughout their system and keep the blood sugars normal. While still a dangerous condition if left untreated, it is curable. Type 2 diabetics can usually take medication to make their pancreas produce enough insulin; and if they lose the excess weight, they can become non-diabetic again.

One more comment here: Why do diabetics pee so much and get so thirsty? Well, it's because their bodies are not able to use the sugar they've taken in and so it passes right out through the kidneys. And because the kidneys are working so hard to get rid of all those toxins the excess sugar produces, they are working extra hard and wanting more fluids to flush it all out. Makes sense! Our bodies really are amazing!

Now the myths:

1. We've gotten this question a lot - especially when Kendall was younger. Will your son grow out of this (kind of like asthma)? NO! Remember, I said that this disease is not curable; once the pancreas stops producing insulin, it can never recover. Unless God heals him.

2. So, Kendall cannot eat any sugar, right? No, that's not true either. Because if Kendall couldn't eat sugar, well, he couldn't eat much at all. This is an area that I would like for people to understand better. Much of what you and I eat turns to sugar once it enters our bloodstream. All starches and carbs turn into sugar, even healthy stuff. Breads, vegetables like corn, peas, legumes, carrots. All fruits turn into sugar. The key is converting these sugars into energy that the body can use. That's why God created insulin.

3. Kendall got diabetes because he ate too many sweets, right? No. That's not right at all. In fact, what he ate had nothing to do with his developing diabetes. They don't know why some people develop it and why their bodies attack their insulin-producing cells. (Interesting thing, there are infants who are born with Type 1 diabetes - figure that one out!)

4. When Kendall is feeling a "low" (low blood sugar) you need to give more insulin, right? This is a common misconception. NO, please don't give the person more insulin. When a person is experiencing a low blood sugar, it means, for some reason that they have too much insulin circulating in their bodies. The best remedy for this is to give a high sugar snack or fruit juice to raise their glucose levels and counteract the insulin. If not, they can go into a diabetic coma and die.

It's a very touchy balancing system. We've had a couple of these low sugar episodes where we had to take Kendall to the emergency room to get glucose in an IV. Very scary, indeed!

5. Diabetes is genetic. It can be, but not always. My dad had type 2 diabetes, because he was overweight and did not take care of himself, but we have no Type 1 diabetics in our family. I have become acquainted with many Type 1 diabetics who had no diabetes in their family.

Okay, well that's enough for this time. Hope it wasn't a total bore!