What in the first place is Type 1 Diabetes?  When compared to Type 2 diabetes, it is the ‘better of two evils’ and patients may go on with their lives with the intake of medication. The condition occurs when the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Why is this big deal you may ask? Well, insulin is the hormone that acts like the password for the body’s cells to open up and allow sugar to enter. Without insulin, sugar remains in the blood stream and the cells don’t get the glucose they need to convert into energy.

When all this happens, the following symptoms may be observed:

1. Extreme fatigue. Sufferers will easily get exhausted even after eating a complete meal. This in turn will affect what they can do. Simple tasks will leave them tired which can become very disheartening.
2. Abnormal hunger. Since your body isn’t getting what it should out of your food, you will tend to become hungry very easily. Your muscles and organs are depleted of energy which triggers the feeling of hunger that may even continue after you eat. It’s like eating becomes useless.
3. Loss of weight. Since you will be eating more than usual, you may think you’d be gaining weight but with a Type 1 diabetes patient, this isn’t the case. Since your muscles and fat stores lack energy supplies, they will shrink. You will end up losing weight abnormally.
4. Increased thirst and urination. This is one of the common symptoms that you will notice. Since there is an excess of sugar in your blood stream, fluid is pulled from your tissue. This makes you thirsty all the time and you’ll end up urinating more frequently as well.

It is imperative that you carefully take note of these symptoms and act accordingly. Neglecting them may be fatal. Very serious complications can result if these symptoms are left unattended. Here are a couple of the most serious.

In a survey conducted by the American Heart Association, 65% percent of people having Type1 or 2 Diabetes die of some blood or blood vessel related disease. Too much sugar in your blood stream affects your vessels and may damage them. This makes sufferers more prone to suffering from serious heart problems.

Nerve damage or neuropathy can also result. This is because too much sugar may injure the blood vessels walls that give blood to your nerves especially in the legs. Once this happens, numbness and pain that starts in the tips of your fingers or toes may occur. In extreme cases, this may spread and cause loss of feeling in the entire limb.

Eye damage. With too much sugar in the blood stream, fluid is drained from the tissues including your eyes. This may result in blurry vision. In effect, a sufferer may be more prone to diseases such as glaucoma and other complications.

Kidney problems may also result from diabetes left untreated. Once the sugar damages the small vessels in the kidney, the filtering process may be permanently damaged. Dialysis or even transplant may be necessary.

Though Type1 diabetes has no cure, if you are able to detect the condition in its early stages, medication can be given that will allow you to lead ‘normal’ and ‘healthy’ lives.