When we talk about diabetes- insulin is probably the first term that comes to your mind. This is for a good reason since insulin is indeed the main cause of this ailment. What exactly is insulin though?

In a nutshell, insulin is the hormone produced by the pancreas that is greatly valued by the cells. Sugar or glucose can’t enter the body’s cells without this hormone. In a way, it acts like a key that opens the door for sugar to enter these cells. Sugar off course is what gives us energy and is used by all organs and muscles.

Since sugar isn’t able to enter these cells, it ends up staying in the blood stream which causes many complications including heart problems. This leaves the cells malnourished.

It may be a little challenging for you to realize whether you have this type of diabetes since the symptoms may easily be interpreted as ‘normal’ parts of life. Here are some examples of these symptoms that you may misinterpret.

• Excessive hunger. You may easily conclude that you may just have a good appetite. How are you to know whether this hunger isn’t normal anymore?  If you suffer from Type 1 diabetes, even after eating a complete meal, you may still feel hungry and have no energy. This is because the energy you’re supposed to get from your meal isn’t reaching your cells.
• Fatigue. You will tend to easily get tired if you have diabetes. This may be even after you’ve eaten. Again, the reason is because your body isn’t producing enough insulin which in turn means your cells are deprived of glucose and lack energy.
• Rapid weight loss.  With deprived energy supplies, your organs and muscles will tend to shrink. If you aren’t on any diet but seem to be losing weight rapidly, this may be the reason for your weight loss.
• Blurred vision. With too much sugar in your blood, fluid may be pulled from your tissues including your eyes. This may result in blurry vision. If you haven’t had any eye problems in the past but suddenly have problems focusing clearly, you should take this to your physician.

If you don’t give attention to your condition and seek medical help, there are very serious health factors that you will face. In fact, even with the best medical care, diabetes patients have a high risk of developing these complications.

Heart problems such as coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke and narrowing of the arteries are common complications diabetes patients face.

Kidney problems are also common to type 1 diabetes problems. The kidneys contain tiny blood vessels that act as your body’s filtering systems. With too much sugar in your blood, these vessels may become damaged which in turn will affect the function of the kidneys.

If you are pregnant with diabetes, there will be a high risk of miscarriage, still birth and other birth defects.

Getting medical attention as soon as possible is very important when you see the manifestation of type 1 diabetes symptoms.

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