https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus_type_1 This is a very good explanation…. but not so much if you have no clear understanding of the terms used.
Diabetes Type One …. for the overall most part it affects the young, causing them to loose a significant amount of weight and become very tired and thirsty.
I will try here to explain what happens in type one diabetic. If we think of our body as a machine…. machines need fuel for energy to operate. Our bodies use food as it’s source of fuel for energy. Our fuel sources consist of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Once we chew the food it passes to our stomach to be digested and into our intestines where it gets absorbed through the membrane walls into our bloodstream. Now in our bloodstream, the fuel is carried throughout the body to all of our cells.
Most readily available fuel for our bodies to consume and use is call glucose/sugar, which our body has converted the carbohydrate into for energy.
The pancreas is the body’s regulator of how much glucose enters the bloodstream and is available for all the cells. As we consume food, the pancreas detects this and sends out a message to all our cells there is sugar available to be used. This message is called Insulin. As the insulin attaches itself to certain parts of the cell wall, it opens a “door” into the cell, allowing the cell to take it in and use it as energy.
Within Type One Diabetes, the pancreas doesn’t function properly and the detection and regulation of sugar within the body doesn’t happen. And the message of Insulin doesn’t open the “door” to the cells for use of the energy. As a result the Diabetic then will become thirsty, hungry and tired. And if this continues they will experience blurred vision and frequent urination. This is known has a “high”… or when the body has “too much” sugar within the system. This is very dangerous as the person body is basically becoming a sugar cube (as my late husband used to say). Their joints, and muscles become very stiff and sore and ultimately they will pass out and could die.
As a diabetic they now need to take Insulin through the form of a needle, or pump. But this also has it’s dangers too. The pancreas is still not working within a diabetic, so they manually insert the needle to pass the message to the cells that the “door” must be opened to accept the glucose for energy. But how much insulin “message” does one need to “talk” to the cells?? That is where a blood meter comes in. Normal Canadian Ranges are between 4-7mml of sugar within the blood. Anything higher, requires more insulin and anything lower requires more glucose/energy.
If there is too much insulin in the diabetics system, the cells become saturated and use up all the glucose. At this point the diabetic starts to act like they are “drunk”. They slur their words, don’t finish sentences or thoughts, staggered walks if they can get up at all and some, like my late husband become violent. Eventually they will passout and could die.
What it doesn’t tell you is about the person who is experiencing this disease and the people that are in their family. This disease is not just an individual’s disease. It affects everyone that is involved with the individual. I hopefully will be able to give you descriptions of the different complications that we encountered along with what my experiences were. I will also try to express to you the stress and relief during these experiences.