Diabetes is complicated to say the least. It is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease that affects multiple systems within your body-nervous, vascular (veins and blood vessels), cardiovascular system, vision, renal (kidneys), hormonal, etc… To put it simply, diabetes affects your entire body.
Diabetes is a slow killer. You can go years without knowing that you have it. Symptoms can sometimes be so minor they go unnoticed or just plain ignored, but all the while wrecking havoc on your body.
There are two major types of diabetes: Type 1-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and Type 2-non-insulin diabetes mellitus (NIDDM).
Let’s start by breaking down each of these types for you, so you have a better understanding.
Type 1
This type of diabetes is often seen in children and young adults. Sometimes it can be seen in adults too, but in small percentages. With type 1 diabetes your body thinks that your good old pancreas is a terrorist, so what happens. You might have guessed, your body starts attacking it and destroying the organ’s cells that produce insulin (hormone that regulates blood sugar levels).
Your body is then unable to produce or cannot produce enough insulin to regulate the sugar from the foods you eat causing you to take daily synthetic insulin injections.
Type 2
This is the most common diabetes affecting 90-95% of diabetics. This type of diabetes doesn’t really have an age limit, affecting teens to seniors.
Diabetes type 2 is linked to a sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits and being overweight.
Not so much of an autoimmune disease but more of an inflammatory disease with this type of diabetes. With type 2 diabetes your body actually produces adequate or excessive amounts of insulin but your stubborn cells put the gates up and prevent the insulin and the sugar from food from entering your cells properly thus leaving the sugar in your blood stream.
This type of diabetes is sometimes controlled with oral medications, which we believe can be avoided through some minor lifestyle changes. The most effective treatment for type 2 diabetes is diet, exercise and the right mindset.
Currently there are no “cures” for both types of diabetes, but with type 2 diabetes you can keep the beast at bay and reverse many of the complications associated with it through the 3 things I mentioned earlier (diet, exercise, and a healthy mindset).