Diabetes Mellitus An Autoimmune Disease - 1914 Words

Life presents us with many difficulties on a daily basis whether it is financial problems, life, relationships, or medical issues. Autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes mellitus affect adults as well as children. In children diabetes requires a lot of attention and demands a lot to maintain proper care and regulation of medications. There are many medications that Type 1 diabetes mellitus can be regulated with along with other treatments to prevent a downward effect of issues that diabetes mellitus causes. Type 1 diabetes mellitus affects mainly children and statistics have proven that this particular autoimmune disease affects people in the millions here in the United States. Diabetes mellitus is an autoimmune disease where the†¦show more content†¦Lacking the production of insulin individuals who are diagnosed with diabetes must depends on synthetic insulin, which is given through injection intramuscularly or through an insulin pump. Diabetes falls under two categories. Type 1, which is an autoimmune disease and is hereditary. In the United States as of 2012, statistics show that â€Å"29.1 million people have diabetes. Of the 29.1 million, 21.0 million were undiagnosed with Type 1†(Statistics About Diabetes, 2014). Type 2, which were formally known as â€Å"adult- onset† is where the â€Å"insulin target cells located on the target cells have changed in some ways and are no longer able to receive the insulin when it arrives to the target cell†(Caroline, N pg. 124). As many as 3 million Americans may have Type 1 diabetes. Each year, â€Å"more than 15,000 children and 15,000 adults – approximately 80 people per day – are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the U.S.† (JDRF, 2014). Type 1 being an autoimmune disease can present it self with hypoglycemia, which is low blood glucose, levels in the body from possibly too much insulin or too little food or both. Hyperglycemia, w hich is where there is a deficiency of insulin and the body, is not able to properly metabolize into glucose to maintain a normal rate of 80-120 mg/dL. Polyuria, polydipsia and polyphagia are contributing factors for both hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. Daily life for someone with Type 1 diabetes