Diabetes: A Background

Today, I'm going to give a little medical background on T1D and T2D.

First off, you need a simple explanation on how your body works. For all the doctors/science nerds reading this largely simplified explanation, deal with it. I’m no smarty pants. So here is how it goes: You eat food. Your body eventually breaks the food down into glucose (a type of sugar your body needs in order to keep you walking and talking). However, in order for the glucose to get into your bloodstream and be used, it needs insulin. So your body makes insulin, which attaches itself to glucose and as friends, they enter the bloodstream.

Insulin and glucose. Friends like Sam and Frodo. All out to accomplish a bold mission.

The problem with diabetics? Their body doesn't properly make insulin. Sometimes, it makes too much. Sometimes, too little. It all depends on whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. What are the differences?

T1D:
*Your pancreas doesn't make insulin at all.
*Requires an insulin shot or insulin pump in order to stay alive.
*It is not preventable. No eating habit, workout routine or surgery can fix it. Their body is just broken.
*It is generally diagnosed at a younger age. Carter was diagnosed at six months, his dad at three years.
*Individuals with T1D are usually thin. Kyle is thin, but Carter still has his adorable baby rolls!

Those rolls are NOT messin' around!

T2D:
*Your body makes insulin, but for various reasons, the cells stopped responding.
*Those various reasons mainly include bad diet and exercise.
*Generally, with proper diet and exercise, the individual can reverse T2D effects.
*It is generally diagnosed at an older age, but as Americans have become increasingly fat and lazy, it is showing up in younger and younger children. Go Amerucka!

Feel a bit more educated? Good. So do I! The point is...we love Carter!