Juvenile Diabetes

Juvenile diabetes is now more commonly called Type 1 diabetes. Juvenile diabetes is the result of inappropriately high blood glucose levels due to a deficiency of insulin secretion in the pancreas.

Glucose is a simple sugar found in food. It is an essential nutrient that provides energy for the proper functioning of the body cells. Carbohydrates are broken down in the small intestine and the glucose in digested food is then absorbed by the intestinal cells into the bloodstream, and is carried by the bloodstream to all the cells in the body where it becomes energy. However, glucose cannot enter the cells alone and needs insulin to aid in its transport into the cells. Without insulin, the cells become starved of glucose energy despite the presence of abundant glucose in the bloodstream.

Insulin is a hormone that is produced by the beta cells of the pancreas. In addition to helping glucose enter the cells, insulin is also important in tightly regulating the level of glucose in the blood. After a meal, the blood glucose level rises. In response to the increased glucose level, the pancreas normally releases more insulin into the bloodstream to help glucose enter the cells and lower blood glucose levels after a meal. When the blood glucose levels are lowered, the insulin release from the pancreas is turned down.

In normal individuals, such a regulatory system helps to keep blood glucose levels in a tightly controlled range. For those with juvenile diabetes, the B cells of the pancreas have been destroyed, making it impossible for the body to regulate blood glucose levels on its own. Those with juvenile diabetes require insulin injections for survival.

What causes juvenile diabetes?

The exact cause of juvenile diabetes is unclear, but it is believed that juvenile diabetes results from an infectious or toxic insult to persons whose immune system is genetically predisposed to develop an aggressive autoimmune response either against altered pancreatic B antigens (proteins) or against molecules of the B cell resembling a viral protein (called molecular mimicry). It is not caused by obesity or by eating excessive sugar.

The risk of juvenile diabetes is higher than virtually all other severe chronic diseases of childhood. Juvenile diabetes tends to run in families. Brothers and sisters of a child with juvenile diabetes have at least 100 times the risk of developing juvenile diabetes as a child in an unaffected family.

Symptoms of Juvenile Diabetes