Type 1 diabetes :

More than one million Americans have Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes-a disease which strikes children suddenly, makes them insulin dependent for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications. Someone is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes every hour. It can and does strike adults as well. In Type 1 diabetes, a person’s pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone necessary to sustain life. Although the causes are not entirely known, scientists believe the body's own immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

The Truth About Type 1 Diabetes: AFFECTS YOUNG CHILDREN: It’s one of the most costly, chronic diseases of childhood and one you never outgrow. INSULIN DOES NOT CURE IT: While insulin allows a person to stay alive, it does not cure diabetes nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating effects: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputations, heart attack, and stroke. NEEDS CONSTANT ATTENTION: To stay alive, those with Type 1 diabetes must take multiple insulin injections daily and test their blood sugar by pricking their fingers for blood six or more times per day. While trying to balance insulin injections with their amount of food intake, people with Type 1 diabetes must constantly be prepared for potential hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reactions, which can be life threatening. DIFFICULT TO MANAGE: Despite rigorous attention to maintaining a healthy diet, exercise regimen, and always injecting the proper amount of insulin, many other factors can adversely affect a person’s blood-sugar control including: stress, hormonal changes, periods of growth, physical activity, medications, illness/infection, and fatigue.

Statistics and Warning Signs

Even with insulin, Type 1 usually results in a drastic reduction in quality of life and shortens the average life span by 15 years. Each year approximately 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with Type 1, over 13,000 of whom are children. That’s 35 children each and every day.

Warning signs of Type 1 diabetes include: extreme thirst, frequent urination, drowsiness or lethargy, increased appetite, sudden weight loss for no reason, sudden vision changes, sugar in urine, fruity odor on breath, heavy or labored breathing, stupor or unconsciousness. These may occur suddenly.

What is it like to have Type 1 diabetes?

Ask people who have Type 1 diabetes. It’s difficult. It’s upsetting. It’s life threatening. It doesn’t go away. Actress Mary Tyler Moore, JDRF’s International Chairman “I’ve had juvenile diabetes for over 30 years. It changes everything about a person’s life. And to add to the day-in, day-out hassles of living with diabetes - the balancing of diet, exercise, and insulin, the shots, the terrible episodes of low blood sugar, the weird feelings of high blood sugar - is the knowledge that even if you do all you can to be as normal as possible, you’re not, you’re different, and you face the uncertainty of an adulthood visited upon by early blindness, kidney failure, amputation, heart attack or stroke.” Rachel Dudley, 15, Michigan “Diabetes is like the big bully on the block-stealing my health instead of my lunch money, and taking my life instead of my gym shoes.” Julie Polatchek, 13, California “I am thirteen years old and I can’t imagine having diabetes for the rest of my life. I can’t imagine going blind and never seeing my parents’ faces or flowers or my animals. I can’t imagine losing a leg and never being able to dance or walk normally again. And I can’t imagine giving myself thousands and thousands of more shots.” Brian Pitt, 16, Florida “I passed out in math class on my first day of high school. The kids all thought I was on drugs, and the teacher didn’t do anything. I woke up on the floor and they sent me to the office. Apparently no one remembered that I had diabetes.” Caroline Rowley, 10, Texas “I’d give everything in the world for just one day free of diabetes, but I can’t until they find a cure. If people don’t start to understand how serious Type 1 diabetes is, I might go blind and never make my dreams come true.”

-from www.jdf.org please visit the site to learn more! also visit www.childrenwithdiabetes.com

DID YOU KNOW THAT?.... -Insulin dependent diabetes (Type 1), which affects children, is usually caused by a deficient secretion of insulin and is treated by insulin injections

-Diabetes strikes people of every race, but it's most common among whites

-Teenagers with chronic diseases such as diabetes may be at greater risk for depression

-16 million people in the United States suffer from Diabetes

-An average child with juvenile diabetes takes 730 insulin injections and 1460 painful finger sticks in one year

-Childhood diabetes (type 1) is the most severe

-Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death

-Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in people between 20 and 70 years of age

-Diabetics spend an estimated cost of 100 billion per year on diabetic needs

-More people die each year from diabetes than die from breast cancer and AIDS combined

-The Government spends only $20 of research funding per year for every victim of diabetes, about 1% of the amount spent for research on AIDS

-President Clinton wore a Silver/Gray diabetes awareness ribbon when he signed the bill that would designate federal funds to fight diabetes

-Nicole Johnson (Miss America 1999) is a diabetic

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