TYPE 1 DIABETES

Most patients will have symptoms of high blood sugar levels or hyperglycaemia such as: excessive hunger, excessive thirst, feeling tired, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss, blurred vision,and fatigue.

The specific clinical symptoms associated with the classic onset of hyperglycaemia and T1DM includes: polyuria, polydipsia, and weight loss.Polyuria is when the serum glucose concentration rises significantly above 180 mg/dL (10 mmol/L), exceeding the renal threshold for glucose, which leads to increased urinary glucose excretion. Polyuria may present as nocturia, bedwetting, or daytime incontinence. Polydipsia is enhanced thirst because of the increased serum osmolality from hyperglycaemia and hypovolemia. Weight loss is a result of hypovolemia (decreased volume of circulating blood in the body) and increased catabolism. Insulin deficiency in diabetic children impairs glucose utilization in skeletal muscle and increases fat and muscle breakdown. Initially, appetite is increased, but over time, children are more thirsty than hungry, and ketosis leads to nausea and anorexia, contributing to weight loss.

If hyperglycaemia goes untreated, your body resorts to using its fats and protein stores as an alternate source of energy. As fat breakdown continues, certain byproducts, known as ketone bodies, accumulate in the blood, resulting in ketosis. When ketone build up to dangerously high levels, a life threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis results. If one’s blood glucose level remains high over time, long term health problems can occur, such as atherosclerosis, nerve damage, blindness, and kidney disease.

The complete diagnosis of T1DM is based on your symptoms and blood tests. Blood tests are a measure of blood sugar levels. Higher blood sugar levels coupled with the aforementioned symptoms is an indication of DM.

T1DM is characterized primarily by insulin deficiency, whereas T2DM is characterized primarily by insulin resistance with relative insulin deficiency. As the incidence of T2DM increases in children and adolescents, it becomes increasingly important to distinguish type 1 from type 2 disease, because long-term management differs.

T1DM is a chronic medical condition that occurs when the pancreas produces little to no insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body absorb and use glucose and other nutrients from food, store fat, and build up protein. Without insulin, blood glucose levels become elevated. T1DM normally starts in childhood or young adulthood, but can develop at any age.

T1DM usually develops when the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells, called the beta cells, in the pancreas. Hence, the pancreatic beta cells loose their ability to produce insulin. In T1DM, your immune system, specifically your WBCs, mistake your pancreatic beta cells for foreign invaders. In an autoimmune response, your WBC secrete autoantibodies that destroy your own beta cells. Thus the pancreas produce little to no insulin. This is an autoimmune response.