People with Type 1 diabetes cannot produce any insulin at all due to immune cells attacking the insulin-making cells located in the pancreas. People with Type 2 diabetes, the more common of the two, once produced insulin, but it wasn’t effective enough for the body. When muscle cells stop responding to insulin’s signals to regulate blood sugar, the body compensates by overproducing insulin to remove sugar from the bloodstream, which eventually burns out the insulin-producing cells. Keep in mind that Type 1 is an autoimmune disease with no known cure, and Type 2 is preventable and primarily linked to lifestyle choices, though genetic mutations of the disease might play a role as well (for both).1 Factors such as being overweight or obese, maintaining unhealthy dietary habits, lack of exercise, heavy alcohol consumption, and tobacco use can all increase one’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Adapting a healthy lifestyle has been proven to prevent and even reverse Type 2 diabetes.
SOURCE:HarvardT.H.CHANSchoolofPublicHealth.Diabetes.https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/disease-prevention/diabetes-prevention/#types.Accessed18Dec2019.
