For many years, Type 1 Diabetes has been referred to as Juvenile Diabetes. Most often, the people who are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes are children and young adults. Insulin is a natural hormone found in your body that helps the body to convert sugar, starches, and other foods into the energy that is needed to sustain life. People are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when their body fails to produce enough insulin to properly convert the intake of sugars and starches into energy.



Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease - a disease that results in the body's failure to fight infections naturally. Autoimmune diseases cause the body to begin attacking its own cells. In Type 1 Diabetes, the cells that are attacked are the beta cells in the pancreas that produce the insulin that turns sugars and starches into the energy needed for your body to function properly.

Cause and Length of Illness

Though the cause of Type 1 Diabetes is unclear, there are several things that we do know about this disease. Type 1 Diabetes is a lifelong, yet often manageable disease. Lifestyle and genetics play a large role in the onset and diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. It is not contagious like a cold; therefore Type 1 Diabetes cannot be passed from one person to another. Diabetes is not caused from eating sweets. One symptom of diabetes is that the body fails to produce the hormone that turns sugars and starches into energy - but consuming sugars and starches do not cause the disease.

What To Do if You Are Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes

If you are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, the first thing that you should do is to avoid panicking. Type 1 Diabetes is a serious and lifelong illness, though in many cases it can be successfully managed with the proper care and diet. Maintaining your overall health is the first step to successfully managing diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes can sometimes lead to other, more serious health conditions - such as heart attack and stroke. While maintaining a healthy lifestyle may not prevent the onset of these other illnesses, it may increase the onset of the illnesses and can help to lessen the effects of these illnesses dramatically. Skin disorders can also be caused by diabetes; therefore, it is important to maintain a routine regimen of skin care that may help to delay or even avoid the onset of skin diseases associated with diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes could place you at a higher risk for contracting gum diseases and other mouth-related problems. It is important to maintain a proper oral hygiene regimen in order to reduce the risks of illnesses associated with the mouth. Proper eye care and early detection of problems can contribute to saving your sight. Blindness is often associated with diabetes. Nerve damage or poor blood flow associated with Type 1 Diabetes can cause a diabetic to develop many different types of foot problems. It is important that you follow some basic guidelines that will help you protect your feet and avoid the onset of foot-related problems.

Lifestyle choices can help or hinder your management of Type 1 Diabetes. It is very important that you maintain a healthy lifestyle, complete with a healthy diet, regular exercise, and proper hygiene. In that fashion, there are some things that you should completely avoid or limit.

Smoking is a habit that contributes to the deterioration of your health, especially if you have been diagnosed with a disease that already affects your health, such as Type 1 Diabetes. Smoking is definitely something that should be avoided - and is a good idea even if you have not been diagnosed with diabetes.

While alcohol consumption should be limited, it is not completely necessary to avoid all consumption of alcohol. If your diabetes is under control and if you are free of any of the health problems associated with diabetes that can be made worse by alcohol consumption, such as nerve damage or high blood pressure, it is often okay to have the occasional social drink. Stress is also something that can contribute to increasing the affects of Type 1 Diabetes. While stress cannot always be avoided, it is essential to both your physical and your mental health to learn how to handle stress in a healthy manner.