Types of diabetes
Diabetes is a condition in which your body doesn’t properly process food for energy. Most of the food you eat is turned into glucose (sugar) for your body to use as energy. The pancreas, an organ near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps control glucose levels, and it helps move glucose from your bloodstream to your muscles and liver cells, where it’s stored and used as energy. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin, or it can’t use its insulin as well as it should.
Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes occurs when a person’s autoimmune system attacks the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin. While we don’t yet understand all the triggers that can cause this reaction, we do have knowledge and resources to treat it. Type 1 diabetes occurs most frequently in children and young adults. However, it can occur in people of all ages, races, shapes and sizes. There is nothing that could have been done to prevent it and those with type 1 diabetes should feel no shame in having it. Parkview’s Diabetes Services team can work closely with you to provide the education and resources you need to thrive while living with type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a disease that develops when the body’s tissues cannot use insulin properly to absorb the glucose it needs for energy. As a result, the body increases the amount of insulin being produced to ensure the body has enough to access the glucose. Eventually the pancreas is exhausted, and the production of insulin decreases, resulting in further increase in blood glucose levels.