November is one of my favorite months. It gives me the opportunity to educate others about one of my favorite topics.
This month is Diabetes Awareness Month. Raising awareness of Type 1 diabetes is essential because not everyone knows the ins and outs of the disease. It’s not super common and many times, people get the different types of diabetes confused.
Let me give you the low down.
Type 1 diabetes affects roughly 1.25 million people in the United States. I am one of those people, and the past eight years have been a roller coaster. It isn’t easy, and it surely isn’t fun. When I was diagnosed, I was terrified. I didn’t know what was happening mainly because I had never even heard of type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is when your pancreas doesn’t produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone.
The way I think about it, insulin is similar to a key. The key that unlocks the carbohydrates that you consume so you can have energy. When your body doesn’t have energy, or insulin, your body starts to degrade your muscles.
Individuals with type 1 diabetes make up about ten percent of all diabetics.
That’s astounding.
Here’s another fact.Type 1 diabetes cannot go away. You cannot grow out of it. I will always have type 1, unless a cure is discovered someday in the future.
Now for the treatments for type 1. No matter what the individual does, they have to take injections of insulin to supplement their bodies. The individual could do multiple daily injections. Then there’s the insulin pump. I began my diabetes journey with MDI and now I am on an insulin pump, which delivers insulin to my body on an hourly basis.
Insulin pumps aren’t for everyone. Not every person with type 1 diabetes chooses to have an insulin pump. A lot of people are content with doing multiple injections per day. The treatment is based off what the individual wants.
So, what I’m trying to tell you is that November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and it’s important to educate yourself and others. It makes me extremely happy to be able to educate and inform people all about diabetes, as it’s something I deal with daily.
I just want people to know what it is and that it isn’t some joke you see Facebook about eating too much cake and cookies and sugar.
I hope you have learned something new from this article. Whether or not you use it to educate someone else is totally up to you: that’s not my business.
bnbauern@indiana.edu
