Diabetes mellitus - The different types
In our articles you already got to know the very well-known types of diabetes type 1 and type 2. But there are other types, which we will take a look at in this article!
Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) is considered the most common metabolic disorder in Western industrialized nations. In order to better classify and categorize the disease, clinical medicine has divided various forms of this disease into types. What all types have in common is that there is a deficiency of insulin in the body, resulting in a sometimes dramatic increase in blood glucose levels. The reasons for this deviation can be of different nature and thus form the basis for the medical typing.
The two most common types
First, let's start with a little review of the previous types:
- Diabetes type 1
- Diabetes type 2
Diabetes type 1 defines a genetic defect in which the body's own immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and destroys the cells. The body can then no longer sufficiently produce the hormone insulin, which is important as a messenger substance.
In type 2 diabetes, insulin is produced in the pancreas, but resistance is triggered by various other pathological (diseased) abnormalities in the body. In other words, insulin is present, but the body does not respond to it, which ultimately equates to an insulin deficiency.
The other types
Again and again, different "types" appear in publications; such as "gestational diabetes" or "adult-onset diabetes". Although these types try to concretize different causes for diabetes, they are completely wrong from a medical point of view. Medicine distinguishes type 1 with its genetic causes and type 2 with its insulin resistance. Other "types", partly transported by different sources, are type 2 in a new guise. All of the medical specifications of type 2 will therefore also apply to these "other types".
So what are the differences anyway?
In their naming, other types describe at most and at most one of the causes or triggers of type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance does not happen suddenly and unexpectedly, but has a history of physical changes and deviations. Puberty, pregnancy or even aging affect a wide variety of processes in the body and its metabolism. Such "exceptional states" can then also lead to insulin resistance. This would mean that, despite pregnancy or advanced age, we would not be in the group of genetic defects, but quite clearly on the side of type 2 diabetes: insulin resistance due to physical deviations.
Treatment and therapy of other forms of diabetes
The effect of these "other types" is one hundred percent the same as type 2 diabetes and can therefore also be treated and therapized as a diabetes disease. The doctor will then merely try to isolate the triggers of this insulin resistance and diagnose it with certainty. However, the course of the disease and the treatment are then similar to type 2 diabetes. Depending on age or pregnancy, the patient may then be adjusted to different medications in order, for example, not to burden unborn life with medication. Older people may be more prone to diabetes. This is not because they are old, but because diabetes type 2 usually has an illustrious history, which can be found in the curriculum vitae of many older people. For this reason, diabetes type 2 has been called "adult-onset diabetes" in the past. Since it can occur not only in the elderly, the type designation has been corrected. A circumstance that may now have prompted various publications to dedicate a new type of its own to "adult-onset diabetes". This is wrong. In clinical medicine, there is type 1 and type 2. All other "types" are renamed causes/forms of type 2 diabetes.
Anyone who is somewhat familiar with the biochemical processes in a person's metabolism will be able to imagine all the things that can go wrong, or which of these circumstances can lead to an insulin deficiency. A very similar range of possibilities exists in the genetic information that ultimately triggers type 1 diabetes. Researchers have found that over 20 pieces of genetic misinformation must come together to trigger type 1 diabetes in an otherwise healthy person. The possibilities are similarly diverse in the case of diagnosed insulin resistance and thus type 2 diabetes.
About the different risk factors
It is true that there are various risk factors that can be eliminated or avoided depending on the lifestyle. Hormonal changes during puberty, pregnancy or even menopause can hardly or not at all be influenced with a mere "behavioral prescription". In these cases, regular medical check-ups moderate the risk. Pregnant women are on a safe scale anyway due to their regular check-ups and also for older people the visit to the family doctor may be more usual than for a person in his mid-twenties. Here again, symptoms may be a helpful yardstick to use as a guide. Anyone who is overweight and tends to gain weight despite a healthy diet, who often feels tired or worn out, or who has a disproportionate urge to urinate should offer a blood glucose test at their next doctor's visit. On the basis of this simple and painless examination, the doctor will be able to recognize and assess the risk of diabetes.
This will then always be diabetes type 2, because from type 1 would already know at the age of majority. The genetic defect of diabetes type 1 is almost exclusively diagnosed in childhood and is also treated from there on. Anyone who joins the group of diabetics in later years has diabetes type 2.
Companion until the end of life
Type 1 as well as type 2 are not curable and accompany the patient until the end of life. Due to the different disease specifications, only the treatments differ. Type 1 patients inject themselves with insulin to compensate for the deficiency. Again, type 2 patients are put on medication to curb and correct the body's own insulin resistance.
As a messenger substance, insulin is responsible for transporting glucose into the cells, thereby reducing the level of sugar in the blood. This is important so that the body can draw on its own fat reserves. In diabetes, this process is interrupted or impeded, and the body tends to gain weight because body fat is no longer processed for energy. Excess weight therefore favors diabetes in any case or is an indication of a diabetes risk.
Conclusion
This information will not be new to severely overweight people, because doctors know their patients and will have carried out a corresponding examination if they have any suspicions. However, since it also happens time and again that diabetes patients do not know or notice anything about their disease, everyone is advised to raise this issue with their family doctor. Diabetes is a chronic and incurable disease. However, it will not lead to restrictions in the course or planning of one's life, as long as it is treated with medical care. Diabetes patients can travel, play sports and pursue all the usual professions. The only difference between them and healthy people is that they have to take certain medications and, ideally, keep a watchful eye on high-sugar foods. However, this "mindfulness" can be observed not only among diabetes patients, but now among many people who pay attention to a healthy and balanced diet. Even the food industry is already reacting and trying to avoid foods with a lot of sugar or to label them accordingly. So as a diabetes patient, you are not alone in your efforts and aspirations. On the contrary. Due to the frequency of the disease, you will find information in many places that will help you.
