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Diabetes - Juvenile Community
This patient support community is for questions related to juvenile diabetes including celiac disease, depression, diabetic complications, hyperglycemia / diabetic keto-acidosis, hypoglycemia, islet cell transplantation, nutritional issues, parenting a diabetic child, pregnancy, pump therapy, school issues, and teens with diabetes.
Average Life expetency of person with diabeties?
by gmoney, Dec 03, 2003 12:00AM
Just curious on this one, if i stay under good control most of the time, will i still live a long life? or will my life be shortent by liek 20-25 years like my doctor said it will be?
because i dont feel like dieing or whatever when im like 50
because i dont feel like dieing or whatever when im like 50
Doctor's Answer
by JDRF-Team-sgg, Dec 04, 2003 12:00AM
Doctors need to tell young diabetic patients about the risk of possible damages due to diabetes because many people need that fear to motivate them to do all the work needed to keep blood sugars under control. If you go searching about life expectancy and diabetes, you will find that manyn type 2 diabetics do die younger than other adults, but this is largely because of obesity. For the type 1 diabetic, obesity is rarely an issue. Twenty years ago, the prognosis for type 1 diabetics was not as good as it is today, for home blood glucose montoring was not possible, and the type 1 diabetic had to somewhat guess at his or her control, using only tests for glucose in urine to tell them whether blood sugar was high. This was not nearly as accurate as actual blood glucose monitoring, and so insulin and food amounts were sort of a best guess scenario.
However, now we have new insulins available and home glucose monitoring is accurate and dependable. Pumps are available for those who wish to use them, and lantus insulin is there as a new type that can provide a constant drip of insulin very much like what the normal pancreas does. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for a type 1 diabetic to not be able to tightly control blood glucose in this modern age and therefore protect themselves from the long-term damages.
I am a long-term type 1 diabetic, having grown up with it and having seen the changes in technology for my 34 years with the disease. Even without the technology we have today to help us, I have managed to live without any damage of any sort from the disease thus far. I am now 46. I strongly suspect that young people who are being diagnosed now will find that their life expectancy is very much the same as people with healthy pancreases. The statistics won't be in for another generation, but I think you will find that you can live a very long life with diabetes now because of the advent of home glucometers and so many types of insulin and pumps that make it possible for you to set up a system that works well for you personally and for your lifestyle. There are so many choices now that make it possible to be successful at managing your diabetes.
Now, all of that being said, I must warn you that YOU are the one in control, and that you do need to stay motivated to keep up the daily work at keeping those glucose numbers as normal as possible. Those that I hear from who are having difficulties with their health tend to be people who have never mastered the self-control that a diabetic must utilize every single day to keep their blood sugar levels within a normal range. These people do find that they have eye or kidney or heart problems starting, and they become suddenly very frightened after years of basically ignoring their condition. You will indeed reap what you sow when it comes to diabetes. It is not easy, but it is very possible to live a very active and healthy life, and I am living proof of that fact. I intend to still be kicking when I am 90, and I hope that you do, too.
However, now we have new insulins available and home glucose monitoring is accurate and dependable. Pumps are available for those who wish to use them, and lantus insulin is there as a new type that can provide a constant drip of insulin very much like what the normal pancreas does. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for a type 1 diabetic to not be able to tightly control blood glucose in this modern age and therefore protect themselves from the long-term damages.
I am a long-term type 1 diabetic, having grown up with it and having seen the changes in technology for my 34 years with the disease. Even without the technology we have today to help us, I have managed to live without any damage of any sort from the disease thus far. I am now 46. I strongly suspect that young people who are being diagnosed now will find that their life expectancy is very much the same as people with healthy pancreases. The statistics won't be in for another generation, but I think you will find that you can live a very long life with diabetes now because of the advent of home glucometers and so many types of insulin and pumps that make it possible for you to set up a system that works well for you personally and for your lifestyle. There are so many choices now that make it possible to be successful at managing your diabetes.
Now, all of that being said, I must warn you that YOU are the one in control, and that you do need to stay motivated to keep up the daily work at keeping those glucose numbers as normal as possible. Those that I hear from who are having difficulties with their health tend to be people who have never mastered the self-control that a diabetic must utilize every single day to keep their blood sugar levels within a normal range. These people do find that they have eye or kidney or heart problems starting, and they become suddenly very frightened after years of basically ignoring their condition. You will indeed reap what you sow when it comes to diabetes. It is not easy, but it is very possible to live a very active and healthy life, and I am living proof of that fact. I intend to still be kicking when I am 90, and I hope that you do, too.
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I'm so sad whenever I hear that DMers (that's what I use as a short hand for folks like us with Diabetes Mellitus) are given a doomsday story. There are MANY otherwise-healthy DMers who live long, rich & happy lives. I was diagnosed as a teen, and now ~35 years later I am 48. Thanks to continuing advances in my own blood sugar monitoring and treatment (thanks, in part to the research funded by JDRF, by the way!) and my own motivation to live long & prosper ;-) ... I'm at least as healthy as my non DM pals.
My sister has had DM for 10 years longer than I have. She was diagnosed at an earlier age & is older than I am.
I have met DMers who have lived successfully with the disease for 60 or 70+ years and they are among the "wise old souls" still with us today.
Do all you can to take excellent care of yourself. This is a chronic disease and requires something like a marathoner's attitude.
It absolutely DOES matter how we take care of ourselves. While some may be lucky enuf to have genetics that protect 'em from the ravages that uncontrolled blood sugars bring, I'm not counting on that luck ... I'm counting on the things I can control (somewhat): my attitude, my behaviors, and my commitment to getting good medical & mental health care. It's my hope for you, too.
Waddya think?
I understand where gmoney is coming from. I got the same scary "you'll probably have a shorter than normal person's lifespan" and "you'll probably have to switch to a less active lifestyle" talk from my first endo my second day in the hospital after being diagnosed. I was already extremely depressed; paranoid about all the insulin shots; confused at what had happened to me; unsure about how I would even eat the next day; and so frightened that I thought I was losing it all together .... the last thing *I* needed to hear from a doctor was that I was now going to die long before my time.
After I switched endocrinologists, my new endo calmed me down and explained that was the *worst* case scenario (he was also at a loss to explain why my first endo would scare the heck out of me on my second day without mentioning this). It was what would happen if I didn't keep my sugars in range or didn't do anything to help myself manage the damage that Diabetes left me to live with. He even mentioned a player from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an example of how even a diabetic can play active sports like pro football and live a perfectly normal life.
We all have limited lifespans - whether we have Diabetes or not. It's a fact of life. At some point our number will be up - it happens to everyone. But Diabetes doesn't necessarily cut our lives shorter .... as long as you don't give up and neglect yourself.
I figure Diabetes has taken away a lot from me and I've had to fight and will have to continue to fight to reclaim my life back from what it did to me. I'm not about to let it push me in a corner and take any more of my life.
Thanks for clearing that up for me, and again, you guys are a great help to me,
I have had diabetes for about 7 months, my docs are worried i am keeping my levels too low because my test that looks at the average over 3 months shows that my level was 5.8 mmol
Ok heres the bit i shouldnt say..i enjoy taking extacy with friends but i have noticed that a few weeks after taking them i need to take more insulin to keep control..when im off them for a few weeks i barely need to take any..breakfast i take no insulin at all and keep a brilliant reading...then dinner i take approx 7 units of novorapid and i eat a big dinner, i have come to the conclusion that i am quitting taking them as its going to mess me up in the future and i really want a long life and reading these comments has made me realise that i can have a long life too if i quit the pills.
all in all i really do have a good control over it and never go high but i do have frequent hypo's maybe once every 2 days but quickly bring it up. i say my average reading is around 6 mmol
Its time i start looking after myself...