Hypoglycemia and diabetes

[Jen85]

Is hypoglycemia the same as diabetes? What's the difference between type 1 and type2 diabetes? is it the age of the person that makes the difference between the two types?

thanks

[JDRF-Team-gg]

Hypoglycemia and diabetes are two different conditions.  I will share with you my knowledge of both.  Hypoglycemia occurs when a persons pancreas produces too much insulin and their blood sugar drops low enough to produce symptoms of a low blood sugar that may include shakiness, sweating or clammy feeling, or mental confusion.  When this happens, glucose needs to be given to raise the blood sugar to a normal level.  Healthy mid-meal snacks help stabilize blood sugars and usually can prevent severe hypoglycemic events.
Type 1(juvenile) diabetes is most often diagnosed in childhood, but young adults and seniors can develop type 1 diabetes.  Type 1 diabetes occurs when the persons pancreas stops producing insulin, resulting in the rise of blood sugar.  Because Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmunine disease (like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis), the person's own immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.  More than 1 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, for which there is no cure.  In many instances, it is not known why a person develops Type 1 diabetes.  They may be genetically predisposed or a so-far unidentified environmental trigger (or triggers).
Type 2 diabetes results when a person becomes resistant to insulin and their body cannot use it efficiently, resulting in high blood sugars.  Type 2 diabetes is most often diagnosed in adulthood, but there has been an increase in children and adolescents now being diagnosed.  The sedentary life-style and increase in obesity has led to this increase in both children and adults.  Nearly one third of the 16 millions Americans with Type 2 diabetes do not know that they have it.  There are approximately 16 million more Americans with "pre-Type 2".  With lifestyle changes such as weight loss and exercise, some people with Type 2 diabetes can restore their normal blood sugars, requiring no medications.

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Jen,
Hypoglycemia is not the same as diabetes, but they both have to do with insulin and blood sugar.  Type 1 diabetes is different from Type 2, too.

As I understand hypoglycemia, it is the condition where a person produces TOO MUCH insulin in response to glucose.  

Type 1 diabetes is often called Juvenile Diabetes because most folks with it are diagnosed before adulthood.  Once the "honeymoon" is over, we are unable to produce ANY insulin at all and must therefore take shots to meet our needs.  Type 1 does occur in adults, too.  Good treatment of Type 1 involves insulin, healthy diet & exercise.

Type 2 is most often associated with adult-onset and can be a combination of insulin resistance (most often in overweight folks) and also sluggish/impaired insulin production.  Type 2s are sometimes treated with insulin, sometimes with oral meds, sometimes both, and always in combination with diet & exercise.

Hope this helps,
LRS

[JDRF Team SGG]

Peope who are not diabetics, but who have hypoglycemic problems usually have to watch what they eat just as much as a diabetic does, although for different reasons. If a person makes too much insulin at times, this usually happens when the person has eaten foods which spur the pancreas to over-produce insulin. Usually, these foods are high-carboydrate foods such as cookies or other sweets, or caffeine-heavy foods or drinks, which can over-stimulate the person's insulin-production. Hypoglycemic people need to be aware of the symptoms of hypoglycemia (shakes, headache, sweating, feelings of fatigue, etc.) and to eat foods to bring sugar levels back up to normal when they occur. Most of my reading on the subject tends to encourage hypoglycemics to keep some juice handy for severe episodes, but also to eat protein-rich foods such as nuts to help keep blood sugar levels from spiking up and down again as they can when treated with the juices alone.