The difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes: Can type 1 diabetics eat everything? What a therapy looks like?

I had a few people asking me this, so I will explain it here because I believe it is important for the ordinary people to understand the difference.

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Yes, type 1 diabetics can eat everything but they have to apply insulin TO LIVE - to push glucose ( energy) inside of their cells, and they have to closely monitor a level of the blood sugar all the time. It has to be in balance, not high not low, as both are not good.

Type 1 also can not exclude or limit the carbs as type 1 needs them instantly in the system to live otherwise the sugar level drops drastically and they can fall in shock over it, and yes in the extreme cases this can be lethal. Type 1 can not survive without the carbs, a long time ago people tried this, and patients were still dying because the glucose simply could not enter the cells. If you heard somebody with diabetes lives without the carbs, on keto diet for example, that would be type 2.

Type 1 also does not happen because of the food, and it is not food related. They do not know why it happens for some people, but they do know it is an immune reaction of the body itself ( possibly on the virus of some sort) that destroys beta cells that produce natural insulin in the pancreas.

Type 2, the one people usually hear about is different as the patients go on diet, limit carbs, use pills, need to lead a healthy lifestyle... yadda yadda yadda ... while type 1 has to inject insulin whenever eating a meal that includes the glucose.

My daughter is type 1, and has to go through the entire lab process before eating anything.

It looks like this.

She poke herself in the finger with a pen needle and then measures a blood sugar with a special device to see if she needs an extra insulin in the meal.

Then she calculates a dosage of the insulin for the carbs in that meal and add extra if her current blood sugar is high.

Then she has to inject herself in the skin of the stomach with the exact dosage of insulin for that meal.

Yes, she has to stab herself with a pen syringe in her own stomach. Needle is very thin and usually this is painless.

She does this whole process 6 times a day. She has to do it every day in order to survive for the rest of her life.

My daughter is only ten years old.

If that is not enough, every day before the bed time she also has to apply a similar syringe with a bigger dosage of the slow working insulin that maintains her metabolism for 24 hours.

She has to stab herself with the pen needle in the lateral portion of a tight, and usually this is very hard for her so in many cases I am the one who does this ( or the nurse if I am not there). The only way to do it with no pain is to have an extra steady hand and do it smooth and fast. And there is no yes or no.

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