Type 1 Diabetes : Causes,Symptoms, Complications,Risk factors,Prevention

Overview

Diabetes is a long-term metabolic disorder. It is a silent killer disease and  can be developed by people of all ages. It develops in your body when blood sugar levels climb above normal.

Diabetes has a negative impact on the nerves, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and heart.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 422 million people around the world have been suffering from diabetes.

Most of the diabetes patients live in low-and middle-income countries. About 1.5 million people die from diabetes every year. 

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic health condition that develops in your body when blood glucose levels rise higher than normal.

Your body uses blood glucose as its main energy source, which it gets from the food you eat.

While you consume a carbohydrate, your body converts it into the sugar and releases it into your bloodstream. In order to assist your cells absorb glucose from your blood and use it as fuel, your pancreas produces hormone insulin and releases it.

When the body fails to produce enough insulin or no insulin or can not properly use it then glucose can not enter into the cells. Resulting in extra  glucose accumulating in the bloodstream which is referred to as high blood sugar.

Due to accumulation of too much glucose in your blood, this may result in serious health problems or even become life-threatening.

Despite the fact that diabetes is not fully curable, treatment along with lifestyle changes, you can lead a healthy long life.

Cause of type 1 diabetes

It is still unknown what specifically causes type 1 diabetes. However according to the researchers, the following are the primary factors of type 1 diabetes:

Autoimmune Reaction

The beta cells in the pancreas of your body create insulin and release it to regulate blood glucose level. When an autoimmune reaction occurs, cells are destroyed by this reaction and can not create insulin.

Due to the absence of insulin, diabetes develops in your body. Before showing any symptom this process can continue for months or even years.

Genetic Cause

We know genes generally come from parents to children. You are more likely to acquire type 1 diabetes if your parents carry certain genes. Sometimes type 1 diabetes does not develop even if you carry genes from your parents.

Environmental Cause

A virus or other environmental cause may potentially contribute to the beginning of type 1 diabetes. lifestyle choices and diet does not contribute to type 1 diabetes.

Symptoms of type 1 diabetes

The symptoms of type 1 diabetes generally take months or years to appear. But symptoms may develop within a week or month. In children, type 1 diabetes symptoms might appear suddenly. 

The symptoms include:

  • Feeling breathing difficulty
  • Dry lips and feeling thirsty very frequently even all day long
  • Increased frequency of urination, especially during night
  • Having mood swings or other changes in attitude
  • Involuntary urination in a child while asleep
  • Always feeling fatigue than usual
  • Unintended weight loss without any physical activity and exercise
  • Sometimes eyesight goes blurred 
  • Skin, urinary tract or vagina often get infected
  • Thrush returning repeatedly
  • Having breath that smells like fruit
  • Cuts and wound are not cure easily
  • Vomiting and abdominal upset
  • Tendency of appetite

Complications of type 1 diabetes

Diabetes increases the level of your blood sugar levels which drastically harms the vital parts of your body. If it is not prevented and left untreated it can gradually lead you to long-term complications that seriously damage your body. 

The most common complications of type 1 diabetes include:

Kidney Disease (Neuropathy)

Your kidneys consist of millions of small filters named nephrons. If you have diabetes related to high blood sugar levels and are left untreated, over time it may harm your kidney blood vessels and nephrons. 

As a result your kidneys can not work properly and fail to  eliminate extra fluid from blood resulting in kidney damage and high blood pressure. 

By putting more pressure on the kidney’s sensitive filtering system, high blood pressure can intensify kidney disease.

Injury to the nerves (Neuropathy)

If you have diabetes you may experience nerve damage due to high blood sugar levels. Nerves transmit signals from the brain to all organs of your body. 

When nerves can not transmit signals due to high blood sugar level, it affects your ability to see, hear, feel and movement.

Heart attack and stroke

If you have diabetes you are at high risk of heart disease and stroke. Diabetes badly hampers your ability to effectively metabolize food you consume and can not produce insulin hormone.

Your blood glucose (sugar) levels rise because insulin isn’t produced or isn’t used properly.The blood arteries in the body might become damaged over time by high glucose levels, which raises the risk of stroke.

Eye damage

Blindness is a common eye problem seen in aged adults. The leading cause of this problem is diabetic retinopathy. High blood sugar destroys the retina’s blood vessels, which results in diabetic retinopathy (a light-sensitive layer of cells in the back of the eye).

Blood flow may be stopped or eyesight may become fuzzy as a result of swollen and leaking by damaged blood vessels. Both eyes are usually affected by diabetic retinopathy.

Skin Damage

Skin covers our whole body and it is full of nerves and blood vessels. It helps us to sense touch, feel pain, pressure and temperature. Diabetic harm our body’s nerves and blood vessels including our skin. The appearance of our skin may change if something is going on internally.

Gum disease and oral problems

People with diabetes might be affected by gum disease and other oral problems. 

Due to having high blood sugar levels in diabetes patients, the saliva gets more sugar from this. Saliva provides bacteria which form acid and affect the enamel of teeth as well as harm the gum.

Saliva also affects gum blood vessels which increase the more possibility of gum infection.

Sexsual problem

If you have suffered from diabetes for a long time and have high blood sugar, it might damage your nerves and blood vessels throughout the body and lower testosterone levels in men which is called neuropathy. Neuropathy affects blood vessels and does not flow blood into your genital organs resulting in you losing sensation and feelings of your genital.

Having no feeling and sensation in your genital organs it becomes more difficult for you to be physically and emotionally aroused. It is called erectile dysfunction or a sexsual problem for men.

In women blood vessels and nerves damage may affect flow of lubricant from the vagina, as a result women lose their sexual pleasure and stimulation.

Damage to the foot

Foot is a vital organ of our body. We can not run, walk and do any other activity without our feet. Foot problem related to diabetes is drastically harmful if it is ignored and can result in amputation. 

Damage to the nerve due to diabetes might harm feeling in feet and damage the blood circulation by raising blood sugar level. As a result cuts and sores become slower to heal.

Having risk of develop cancer

Cancer is a chronic slow killer disease. It is linked to diabetes in most cases.

Diabetes patients are at increased risk of getting some types of cancer.

A study report said about 20% of cancer patients who suffer from diabetes.

Additionally, some cancer treatments can influence your diabetes and make it more difficult for you to maintain blood sugar control.

Risk factors of type 1 diabetes

Several elements can increase your chance of developing type 1 diabetes, such as:

Family history related type 1 diabetes: There is a marginally higher chance of another family member having Type 1 diabetes if one family member already has it.

  • Age is a risk factor: Although type 1 diabetes can appear at any age, it does happen at 2 different phases. First phase between the ages of 4 and 7 youngsters.The second phase affects kids between the ages of 10 and 14.
  • Genetic risk factors: Type 1 diabetes is more likely to occur in those who have specific genes.
  • Geography risk factors: Due to the variations in lifestyles and dietary habits, urban people often show higher diabetes risk factors than rural communities. For example, metropolitan regions have a greater frequency of hypertension than rural areas. Obesity rates are higher in urban than rural areas.

Family history related type 1 diabetes: There is a marginally higher chance of another family member having Type 1 diabetes if one family member already has it.

  • Age is a risk factor: Although type 1 diabetes can appear at any age, it does happen at 2 different phases. First phase between the ages of 4 and 7 youngsters.The second phase affects kids between the ages of 10 and 14.
  • Genetic risk factors: Type 1 diabetes is more likely to occur in those who have specific genes.
  • Geography risk factors: Due to the variations in lifestyles and dietary habits, urban people often show higher diabetes risk factors than rural communities. For example, metropolitan regions have a greater frequency of hypertension than rural areas. Obesity rates are higher in urban than rural areas.

Prevention of type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes can’t be prevented,it is beyond our control since it is caused by an immune system disorder. Same as you also have no influence over some factors that contribute to type 2 diabetes, like your genes or age.

However, there are a lot more diabetes risk factors that may be controlled. Most preventive measures of diabetes are minor dietary change and physical activity adjustment.

Conclusion

Diabetes is a slowly fatal disease and there are no recognized remedies. However, with the proper knowledge and prompt treatment, its problems can be minimized.

Diabetes can cause major side effects like heart attack, renal dysfunction, and vision loss.

To avoid diabetes complications, it is important to carefully maintain glucose levels under control.

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