Monday, December 20, 2010

What is the Difference Between Juvenile and Adult-Onset Diabetes, and What Can We Do about It?

It used to be clear that Juvenile, or Type-I diabetes, occurred only with children, and Type-II ("Adult Onset") diabetes occurred solely among adults. While Type-I diabetes remains a problem of the young, and has a different etiology than Type-II diabetes, both are climbing in incidence. Each has a different cause, and can be treated in different ways.

The classic definition of Type-I diabetes was a reduction in the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin. The insulin-producing parts of the pancreas, the Islets of Langerhans (a good trivia question on your college biology exam), would somehow lose their ability to produce insulin. As a result, children of otherwise normal weight and constitution would need to move relatively quickly

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