Type 1 diabetes was once called insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes. It usually develops in children, teens, and young adults, but it can happen at any age. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2—about 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1.
Who is more likely to develop type 1 diabetes? Type 1 diabetes typically occurs in children and young adults, although it can appear at any age. Having a parent or sibling with the disease may increase your chance of developing type 1 diabetes. In the United States, about 5 percent of people with diabetes have type 1.
Although it's often diagnosed in childhood, people can develop type 1 diabetes at any age. You are at a slightly higher risk of type 1 diabetes if your mother, father, brother or sister has it. Insulin is the main treatment for type 1 diabetes. You can't live without insulin injections or using an insulin pump.
There were 3,100 people newly diagnosed (incidence) with type 1 diabetes in Australia in 2020, equating to 12 diagnoses per 100,000 population.
In most cases of type 1 diabetes, people need to inherit risk factors from both parents.
Recent estimates of the reduction in life expectancy caused by type 1 diabetes vary from 7.6 to 19 years. Life expectancy estimates for individuals with type 1 diabetes in these reports ranged from approximately 65 years of age to 72 years of age.
It usually develops in children, teens, and young adults, but it can happen at any age. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2—about 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1.
Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes; type 1 diabetes accounts for approximately 5-10%. In the last 20 years, the number of adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled as the American population has aged and become more overweight or obese.
Type 1 diabetes is potentially preventable
Studies in identical twins showed that two of three initially unaffected cotwins would remain nondiabetic, an experiment of nature implying that type 1 diabetes was a disease involving a dose of happenstance, not solely of genetic predestination.
In people with type 1 diabetes, the onset of symptoms can be very sudden, while in type 2 diabetes, they tend to come about more gradually, and sometimes there are no signs at all. Symptoms sometimes occur after a viral illness.
Stress doesn't cause diabetes but it can affect your blood sugar levels and how you look after your condition. Having diabetes to manage on top of life's normal ups and downs can itself be a cause of stress.
If you're a father who has type 1, your child has about a 1 in 17 chance of getting it. For mothers with type 1 diabetes who give birth: Before age 25, the child has a 1 in 25 chance. At 25 or older, the child has a 1 in 100 chance, which is about the same as anyone else.
Incidence
The incidence of type 1 diabetes varies across latitude, race, and economic conditions. A study in Sweden spanning from 1983 to 2002 found an annual incidence rate of 16.4/100,000 for males and 8.9/100,000 for females [1].
Is type 1 diabetes hereditary? We are also unsure about whether type 1 diabetes is hereditary or not. While 90 per cent of people who develop type 1 diabetes have no relative with the condition, genetic factors can pre-dispose people to developing type 1 diabetes.
Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Approximately 96 million American adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes. Of those with prediabetes, more than 80% don't know they have it.
The only known cure for Type 1 diabetes is either a pancreas transplant or a transplant of the specialized pancreatic cells that produce insulin. But with a shortage of available organs and 1.6 million people in the U.S. living with the disease, a cure for the vast majority is not possible.
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes have many features in common, including problems with glucose control. However, the two conditions are distinct, and one does not transform into the other over time.
Though type 1 diabetes is often thought of as a disease that appears in childhood—and was even called juvenile diabetes before the 1980s—about half of new cases of type 1 each year are diagnosed in older adults.
You can drink alcohol if you have type 1 diabetes, but be careful how much you drink. Drinking too much may cause you to have a hypoglycaemia (hypo), possibly as much as 24 hours later. Talk to your diabetes team about how to drink alcohol safely.
If left untreated, type-1 diabetes is a life-threatening condition. It's essential that treatment is started early. Diabetes can't be cured, but treatment aims to keep your blood glucose levels as normal as possible and control your symptoms, to prevent health problems developing later in life.
“All it takes is a little self-control.” CHENNAI: Living till 100 years of age with diabetes is not just possible, it's simple, says diabetologist Dr V Mohan. “All it takes is a little self-control.”
Though we know sugar doesn't directly cause type 2 diabetes, you are more likely to get it if you are overweight. You gain weight when you take in more calories than your body needs, and sugary foods and drinks contain a lot of calories.