Diabetes Type 1 - What is Type 1 Diabetes and how is it Controlled

Other risk factors that are considered as contributing to a person being diagnosed with diabetes type 1 can include exposure to certain viruses such as Epstein-Barr, mumps, cytomegalovirus and coxsackievirus. While many people are under the impression that drinking plenty of cow's milk is good for you some research has shown that early exposure to cow's milk may actually be a contributing factor to the increased risk.

Patients with Type 1 diabetes are usually thought by most people to have to only have a problem with high blood sugar levels because of the lack of insulin; however with this type of diabetes low blood sugar levels can be just as much of a problem.  While the person may have to take insulin on a regular basis to control the high levels of blood sugar there may still be episodes of "sugar crash" when the body finds that there is not enough glucose in the blood to function properly. When this happens the body's organs begin to malfunction, most notable the brain which gets 100% of the energy it needs to function from glucose.

While low blood sugar is definitely a concern for all diabetics the most common problem is still high blood glucose counts due to the lack of insulin to help the body break down and absorb the glucose. There have been many medications tried over the years and still today the most commonly used treatment remains injected insulin. This is a simple treatment the patient can be taught to give themselves quite easily and does a very good job of helping to control blood sugar levels. In 2006 an inhaled insulin therapy was tried and although found to work well did not meet with much success.

However undeterred many companies are now in a race to produce an inhaler that works well enough to gain widespread acceptance as an alternative to the patients having to constantly give themselves injections. With inhaled therapy the medication can act far more quickly resulting in better overall control of blood sugar levels.