If you or a loved one has diabetes in the Houston, TX, area, it is crucial to have a doctor you can trust. The team at Lawndale Medical Clinic has experience treating patients suffering from type 1 or type 2 diabetes offering long-term primary care services to those who choose us.
What Is Type 1 Diabetes?
Type 1 Diabetes used to be called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes. It is prevalent in children, teens, and young adults. It occurs when your pancreas does not produce or produces very little insulin. Insulin is a vital peptide hormone in the body used to convert the glucose in your blood into energy that your cells use. It can be life-threatening if your blood sugar is not regulated due to a lack of insulin.
Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes and treatable but not preventable.
What Is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 Diabetes can develop at any time during your life. It is when your body becomes increasingly resistant to the insulin your body produces. Your pancreas compensates by producing more and more insulin. Eventually, the cells become resistant to all the insulin being made, and the insulin no longer converts your blood sugar correctly.
You can prevent Type 2 diabetes by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but like Type 1 diabetes, it is a lifelong disease that, if not stopped, can be managed successfully.
What Are the Key Differences Between Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes?
The team at Lawndale Medical Clinic serving diabetes patients in Houston, TX, wants you to know that you cannot prevent Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is thought to have a genetic component and is an autoimmune disease, and is not usually due to poor lifestyle choices.
Type 2 diabetes is generally preventable, and while you are at higher risk if you have a family history of this type of diabetes, it is usually due to poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Poor eating and exercise habits may lead you to be overweight, a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.
If you have type 1 diabetes, your body does not produce insulin or very little. Type 2 diabetes is when the insulin your body produces is not enough or ineffective.
The symptoms of Type 1 diabetes come quickly, while type 2 diabetes develops slowly and is easily missed.
Contact Us
Type 1 and Type diabetes do have differences, but both can be life-threatening if not successfully managed. If you are in the Houston, TX, area with diabetes, do not hesitate to contact the team at Lawndale Medical Clinic at (713) 924-4907.