Why me?
If you’ve just been diagnosed with diabetes you’re probably wondering, ‘Why me?’ It’s important to know it’s not your fault that you have type 1 diabetes, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. It’s not associated with a poor diet or an unhealthy lifestyle.
What is type 1 diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. For reasons we don’t yet understand, your immune system – which is meant to protect you from foreign bodies, such as viruses and bacteria – mistakenly attacks and destroys the beta cells in your pancreas that produce insulin.
Insulin is crucial to life. Without it, glucose can’t move from your bloodstream into the cells of your body to provide them with energy to function. When your pancreas fails to produce insulin, glucose levels in your bloodstream start to rise and your body can’t function properly. Over time, this high level of glucose in the blood may damage nerves and blood vessels and the organs they supply.
What causes type 1 diabetes?
There’s an enormous amount of research into
