Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic debilitating disease, which according to the American Diabetes Association in 2010 affected 25.8 million children and adults in the United States (The American Diabetes Association, 2011). Diabetes is a condition where not enough insulin is produced by the pancreas, or when the cells in the body stop responding to the insulin produced. When this happens, the cells of the body cannot absorb the glucose in the blood (The American Diabetes Association, 2011). There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes, is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, while Type 2 diabetes, referred to as non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset diabetes, can be diagnosed at any age. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes (The American Diabetes Association, 2011). Since diabetes affects so many people it is important to discuss the similarities and the differences in the cause, symptoms, treatment, and complications of both types of this disease.

The cause of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are similar in the fact that both are genetic. This means that a person with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes inherits a predisposition to the disease and that something in his or her environment triggers it. The trigger could be anything such as cold weather, viruses, or even the early diet of a child (Hall, 2011). If a person has Type 1 diabetes his or her child has a 1 in 17 chance of developing diabetes, whereas a child of a person with Type 2 diabetes has a 1 in 7 percent chance of developing the disease (The American Diabetes Association, 2011) Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes differs in the fact that with Type 1 diabetes the hormone insulin is deficient, where in Type 2 diabetes the level of the hormone insulin varies and the body does not respond properly to insulin and then becomes resistant to the effect of insulin (WebMD, n.d.). In both types of the disease it is important to understand...