The Different Types of Diabetes

It is easier to understand the harmful effects from chemical sweetener substitutes if we review the three different types of diabetes: Type I, Type II, and Gestational.

Insulin-dependent diabetes, Type I diabetes mellitus and juvenile diabetes require daily injections of insulin to stay alive. This form of diabetes is considered an autoimmune disease, a disease that results when the body's immune system turns against a part of the body as if fighting an infection. In diabetics, the immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas and destroys them. The pancreas then produces little to no insulin.

The most common form of diabetes is non-insulin-dependent diabetes, Type II diabetes mellitus or adult-onset diabetes, where defective beta cells become exhausted, further fueling the cycle of glucose intolerance and hyperglycemia. This form of diabetes used to develop in adults over fifty years of age, those generally overweight, and used to occur more commonly in the elderly, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Nowadays, Type II diabetes is common among people of any age, especially children and infants.

Gestational diabetes develops (or is typically discovered) during pregnancy. This type usually disappears when the pregnancy is over, but women who have had gestational diabetes have a greater risk of developing Type II diabetes later in life if they do not properly modify their diet.

Posted April 2006 | Permanent Link

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