Healthy Tips Video – Understanding Type 1 Diabetes: Causes, Risks and Screening

Hi, my name is Shelby Shelby. I'm a registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist here at the Healthpark. Today, I want to talk to you about type 1 diabetes.

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition where the beta cells in your pancreas are destroyed by your own immune system. These are your beta cells.

In type 1 diabetes, once these beta cells are destroyed, you're no longer able to make insulin. Insulin is a hormone required to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. This is a life-threatening condition and requires you to go on lifelong insulin to replace those insulin molecules that you can no longer make yourself. New diagnoses of type 1 diabetes occur in both children and adults.

Who Can Get Type 1 Diabetes?

While we historically have thought of type 1 diabetes as juvenile diabetes or diabetes happening in childhood, this can happen in adulthood as well. In fact, about half of those new diagnosed cases are in adults over 20 years of age. And it is a risk factor if you have a family member, like your mom, dad, a sibling, or a child who has type 1 diabetes, of you being at a higher risk of getting type 1 diabetes.

But about 85% of new cases are in people who don't have a family history of the condition. That means that oftentimes, diagnosis is quite a shock. And it can be difficult to adjust to. It can also come along with a condition that's life-threatening called diabetic ketoacidosis. This is where your blood sugars become dangerously high and often requires hospitalization.

Screening and Stages

Thankfully, with research advances, we can now screen for type 1 diabetes. This is a simple blood test where we look for autoantibodies or proteins that are present in the blood of someone who's at risk for developing type 1 diabetes. When you know that you're at risk for getting type 1 diabetes, you can have better outcomes. We can identify it early. And we can also stage type 1 diabetes now.

Type 1 diabetes has three stages:

• Stage 1: Two or more positive autoantibodies, but still has beta cell function and can produce insulin.
• Stage 2: Two or more positive autoantibodies, with some higher blood glucose levels due to beta cell loss.
• Stage 3: Significant loss of beta cell function, requiring insulin injections or pump therapy.

Why Screening Matters

Knowing that you're at risk for developing type 1 diabetes and what stage you're in allows for better outcomes. First, if you know that you're likely to develop type 1 diabetes and what stage you're in, you can participate in research studies that are going on right now to find ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 1 diabetes.

Second, for those in stage two of type 1 diabetes, there is an FDA-approved medication that's been proven to delay the onset of stage 3, which is when you would require insulin. And lastly, we do know that people who are screened and know ahead of time that they're likely to develop type 1 diabetes have a lower incidence of that life-threatening condition at diagnosis called diabetic ketoacidosis.

Free Screening Resources

If you or a loved one are interested in being screened for type 1 diabetes, there are two free resources to help you:

• TrialNet: Free screening if you or a first-degree relative has type 1 diabetes.
• Ask: Opportunity for anyone to be screened, regardless of family history, available online through free resources.

You can also ask your doctor, but insurance coverage is different. So you want to make sure you look through your insurance to make sure it's covered first.

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for learning a little bit about type 1 diabetes with me today. And now that you know more, be sure to share this information and raise awareness for type 1 diabetes. If you're interested in more information, be sure to reach out to diabetes education at the Healthpark.