Dispelling Assumptions Understanding and Raising Awareness about Type 1 Diabetes

Navigating the Impact of Type 1 Diabetes

I was ten years old, sitting in a math class with all of my friends, when I got a devastating phone call. A call from my mother explaining with fear in her voice that my sister perhaps had got diabetes type 1. My grandmother picked me up and drove me to Karolinska Hospital, where I met up with the rest of my family. I still remember the doctor arriving in the waiting area and telling us that my little sister had type 1 diabetes. What was our family supposed to do now? None of us knew anything about the disease. However, we knew that we needed to adapt to a new routine in our everyday life, though how? Then I had assumptions that I necessarily not should have needed. Diabetes type 1 is a severe disease that must be taken more seriously and, above all, be informed about more in society to get rid of unintentional assumptions.

Words Describing Diabetes, Pixabay, 2016

The prominent assumptions about diabetes type 1 are that people get it because they are overweight and consume too much sugar. This assumption is far off from the truth and not correctly right. The reason behind the assumption is that people associate diabetes type 1 with diabetes type 2. Diabetes isn’t only one disease, but several different diseases.

Diabetes type 1 is a chronic, autoimmune, and incurable disease caused by insulin deficiency. Having type 1 implies that the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The hormone insulin is required to regulate blood sugar. Imagine hormones like keys. The insulin formed in the pancreas, produced in the Pancreatic islets of Langerhans, is used as an insulin key to open the cell, which causes the blood glucose to be transferred away from the blood to the cells where it’s converted into energy. Without insulin, the glucose flows past the locked cell causing high blood sugar levels. The information above is explained in Hjälpredan (2017), written by Karolina Janson and Lotta Skoglund. Therefore, insulin treatment is essential for people with type 1 diabetes to control their blood sugar.

However, type 2 diabetes is an insulin-resistance disease where the resistance to insulin is increasing; the keys are too few. Type 2 isn’t autoimmune and is caused mainly by obesity and the lack of physical activity. Compared to diabetes, type 1, people with type 2 still produce insulin and could get rid of the disease by changing their lifestyle. Eva Örtqvist, a senior doctor at Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital, showed, in a recent conversation, statistics that there are approximately 40 000 people total in Sweden who has type 1, whence 8 000 of these are under 18, and 400 000 people in total that have type 2. Explaining that it’s more common for people to have type 2 diabetes today in Sweden’s society, and therefore obesity and sugar are underlying reasons for the assumption that the same factors are causing type 1. Try to remember that diabetes type 1 and 2 have similar characteristics, though ultimately two separate diseases.

Graph showing the number of insulin pumps in different age groups, Swediabkids, Annual Report 2017

When I tell people that my sister has diabetes, the reaction I often face is, “I could never survive diabetes because I’m afraid of needles.” This is the view from one perspective of diabetes type 1 the only tool you have is a hammer, and thereby, you treat everything as if it was a nail. This is not an accurate assumption any longer. Even though there hasn’t been a fortunate discovery where scientists have found out what causes diabetes, more and more technology has advanced and improved. Comparing diabetes treatments today and ten years ago, there is a striking development. “Present-day,

65 % with diabetes type 1 under the age of 18 uses an insulin pump,” stated Eva Örtqvist. An insulin pump is an alternative treatment for insulin pens which can facilitate everyday life for the reason that fewer syringes are required. Instead of taking a syringe for each meal, only one every third day is needed. You may be wondering, how far has the development advanced today? Minimed670g, the first self-adjusting insulin pump system that both gasses and breaks down the intake of insulin, was recently launched. Freestyle Libre is a blood glucose meter that does not require lancets, test strips, and blood; instead, blood glucose is monitored using Bluetooth with remote control. This shows that diabetes is not a challenging disease to live with anymore; everything is about one’s own attitude.

A video produced by Barndiabetesfonden shows that a large percentage of adults have the assumption that people with type 1 diabetes live a normal life compared to healthy people. An assumption that a relative of someone with diabetes hoping was accurate, however, isn’t. Having diabetes means more responsibility and learning the symptoms when both low and high blood sugar decrease complications. Low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, is when the blood sugar is under 3.0-3.5 mmol/l, which could lead to insulin coma. If left untreated, insulin coma could be fatal and, at worst, lead to death and permanent brain damage.

Hyperglycemia, the opposite of hypoglycemia, is when the blood sugar is too high. Too high blood sugar for too long can lead to both short-term and long-term complications. Kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases, amputation of feet, and diabetic ketoacidosis are just a few examples of effects when you don’t treat the disease right. As a diabetic, you need to regularly keep control of the blood glucose levels to prevent the effects stated earlier. You can never turn a blind eye to the disease.

To conclude, it’s easy to have an assumption about a disease without knowing the whole truth about it. Therefore, we need to fight and combat assumptions with information and facts. Diabetes type 1 is a disease that is not similar to any other. It’s not possible to compare type 1 diabetes with type 2 diabetes any longer, the same as it’s not possible to compare different dementia diseases.

References:

1. Janson, K., & Skoglund, L. (2017). Hjälpredan: Diabetes typ 1. Familjeliv Media AB.
2. Örtqvist, E. (Personal Communication). Senior Doctor, Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital.
3. Swediabkids. (2017). Annual Report.