• Question: What is more severe type one or two diabetes?

    Asked by kelan to Keith, Derek on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Derek Ball

      Derek Ball answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Dear Kelan, if we consider what the difference is between type 1 and type 32 diabetes we should then be in a position to answer your question. Type 1 diabetes is a condition whereby the pancreas (the organ that produces several different hormones) does not produce any insulin. Type 2 diabetes is a condition where the body fails to respond to an increase in insulin. In the first case in order to maintain proper control of blood glucose the patient has to receive insulin injections. In type 2 diabetes patients can be treated using drugs that increase the sensitivity of the body to the circulating insulin. Type 2 diabetics are also prescribed a diet and activity life style plan to try an improve insulin sensitivity. Type 1 diabetics have to watch what they eat and co-ordinate this with their insulin injections. It is usually the case that younger people develop type 1 diabetes and older people develop type 2 diabetes.

    • Photo: Keith Siew

      Keith Siew answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      When we say more severe I guess we’d have to consider the health impacts that each type has on the person and the quality of life…

      If untreated… type 1 would be more lethal as the decline in insulin production as cells of the pancreas responsible for its production are destroyed, would eventually lead to a diabetic coma and kill the victim. Whereas type two is a more gradual onset with long disease progression, so it would take longer to kill you if you were untreated though it would have serious effects on your quality of life as the disease developed.

      But seeing as we now catch type 1 diabetes early and we can effectively compensate for the missing insulin with injections and a carefully controlled diet, it has become a manageable condition that you can have a very good quality of life with and life expectancy. Also with a few leaps and bounds in regenerative medicine… it may be possible to replace the pancreatic cells and effectively cure the disease…

      However in the case of type 2, well it normally has many co-morbidities (meaning it usually accompanied by one or more disorders), such as obesity and high blood pressure that further complicate the condition and impact on health! And as Derek pointed out that in type 2 diabetes you get several problems like glucose intolerance (higher than normal blood glucose levels), insulin resistance (cells stop responding to normal levels of insulin)) and then eventually the beta cells of the pancreas become fatigued from producing higher than normal quantities of insulin long-term and can eventually stop producing insulin altogether! So with this in some aspects can be a much more complex disease and harder to treat… and with the rise of obesity across the world (the main contributor to diabetes type 2 onset) I think I would have to say type 2 is more severe in today’s world!

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