Diabetes is a disease that affects many people; this leads to the question, what is diabetes and how does it work? The question of what is diabetes cannot be answered easily, as there is more than one distinctive form of this disease. There are two main types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2 diabetes. There are also some other forms of diabetes including gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes resembles type 2 diabetes in many ways, for example, many of the causes of it are the same.

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes is an autoimmune disease. This disease generally strikes people under the age of 20 years old. It is incurable, and there seems to be no way to prevent it. This is a disease that is caused when the body’s immune system attacks the beta cells in a person’s pancreas. These are the cells that regulate the amount of glucose in a person’s blood. By attacking these cells, the immune system throws the body out of balance. In a healthy person’s body, the amount of glucose released into the bloodstream is equivalent to the size of the meal that person just ate. In a person’s body that has type 1 diabetes, the cells that notify the body of how much glucose to release are damaged, therefore the amount of glucose is not appropriate.

Although type 1 diabetes is not curable or preventable, there are treatments out there that can help people manage this disease. Generally, the only indicator a person may be more likely to come down with type 1 diabetes is a family history of this disease. This indicates that this disease may have a hereditary factor, although this connection is not absolute. There seem to be several factors working in conjunction that decide whether or not a person will become afflicted with this disease.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, generally occurs in adults. Although there is no cut and dried method to figure out who will come down with type 2 diabetes and who will not, there are certain behaviors that can increase a person’s risk. For example, being overweight, eating a diet heavy in fatty foods, smoking, and drinking excessively are all known contributing factors. Individuals with certain ethnic backgrounds and a family history are also more prone to become afflicted with type 2 diabetes

What is Gestational Diabetes?

Gestational diabetes has much in common with type 2 diabetes. Women that are overweight prior to becoming pregnant are more likely to be afflicted with gestational diabetes. Also, women who have had gestational diabetes during prior pregnancies are more likely to become ill with this disease. In most cases, gestational diabetes will go away once the woman is no longer pregnant.

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