diabetes mellitus, diabetes mellitus, juvenile diabetes, adolescent diabetes
Introduction
The outdated term for type 1 diabetes is “juvenile diabetes” and comes from the fact that it is mainly children and adolescents who are diagnosed with this disease for the first time. This name diabetes type 1 is still widespread, but is considered obsolete, as it is now known that adults can just as easily develop type 1 diabetes. Diabetes type 1 is an autoimmune disease and is based on an absolute lack of insulin.
This means that the hormone insulin, which is responsible for regulating blood sugar levels, is not produced by the body at all or not produced in sufficient quantities. As a result, sufferers have a too high blood sugar level. Since the sugar (glucose) is no longer absorbed by the blood into the cells, the next problem arises, namely the lack of sugar in the cells, where it is missing as an energy supplier.
Epidemiology
It is estimated that approximately 7 million people in Germany currently live with diabetes mellitus. However, only about one in 20 of these has diabetes mellitus type 1, which corresponds to about 50,000 people. At 95%, diabetes type 1 is by far the most common metabolic disease in children and adolescents. In Germany, approximately 21,000 to 24,000 children are affected. The rate of new cases increases by about 3 to 5% every year.
Causes of diabetes mellitus type 1
The causes of diabetes are many and varied and usually several factors must coincide for a person to actually develop type 1 diabetes. There is a genetic predisposition as well as various environmental factors that play a decisive role here. One hereditary factor that is found in almost all diabetics concerns a surface characteristic of the white blood cells.
However, there are also healthy people who carry the same characteristic on their cells. In the meantime, at least 20 genes have been identified that are associated with the development of diabetes mellitus type 1. Environmental factors that have been shown to be associated with the development of this disease include various viruses (for example, rubella, echo and herpes viruses), the early consumption of cow’s milk or the protein gluten.
The result of the interaction of these factors is an autoimmune reaction of the body. This means that the immune system, i.e. the defense system, turns against the body’s own structures because it falsely identifies them as foreign and dangerous. In the case of type 1 diabetes, this defense reaction is directed against the B cells of the pancreas, which are responsible for the production of insulin. The death of the cells leads to an absolute lack of insulin, whereby the disease only manifests itself when only 10 to 20% of the cells are still present.
