How does adult onset Type I diabetes work? Is it “burnout” of the body’s ability to make insulin? Why isn’t it noticed sooner? Does good lifestyle prevent symptom development?
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I’m an RN so I’ll answer from more the medical perspective.
Your pancreas does many things. One thing it does is make insulin from these little islands of cells scattered around the pancreas. In fact the word insulin means island. Type I diabetes is not caused by bad lifestyle and can happen anytime in your life. It is more common to hit you when you are young. This is why sometimes people call Type II diabetes “adult onset” even though you can actually get Type I as an adult, but it’s less common.
Type I is not a burnout at all, which makes sense given that it strikes children who haven’t had a chance to burn anything out. With Type I, your own immune system attacks and kills the little islands that make insulin. We don’t know why and so far we have not been able to stop it even when we know it’s happening. The reason it isn’t noticed sooner is that it happens quickly and the damage is mostly done by the time symptoms happen.
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