About Type 1 Diabetes
Your body gets energy by making glucose from foods with carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, milk and fruit. To use this glucose, your body needs insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body control the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood.
Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas has been shut down by the immune system and no longer produces insulin. If a person has type 1 diabetes, glucose builds up in their blood instead of being used for energy.
The cause of type 1 diabetes remains unknown. However, it is not preventable, and it is not caused by eating too much sugar nor by being overweight. The body’s defense system may attack insulin-making cells by mistake, but we don’t know why. People are usually diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before the age of 30, most often during childhood or their teens.