About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffThe exact cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown. Scientists do know that in most people with type 1 diabetes, the body's own immune system — which normally fights harmful bacteria and viruses — mistakenly destroys the insulin-producing (islet) cells in the pancreas. Genetics may play a role in this process, and exposure to certain viruses may trigger the disease.
Insulin key to sugar entering cells
Whatever the cause, once the islet cells are destroyed, your child will produce little or no insulin. Normally, the hormone insulin helps glucose enter your child's cells to provide energy to the muscles and tissues. Insulin comes from the pancreas, a gland located just behind the stomach. When everything is working properly, once you eat, the pancreas secretes more insulin into the bloodstream. As insulin circulates, it acts like a key by unlocking microscopic doors that allow sugar to enter the body's cells. Insulin lowers the amount of sugar in the bloodstream, and as the blood sugar level drops, so does the secretion of insulin from the pancreas.
The liver acts as a glucose storage and manufacturing center. When insulin levels are low — when you haven't eaten in a while, for example — the liver releases stored glycogen, which is then converted to glucose to keep your blood glucose level within a normal range.
Dangerous sugar level in bloodstream
In type 1 diabetes, none of this occurs because there's no or very little insulin to let glucose into the cells. So instead of being transported into your child's cells, sugar builds up in your child's bloodstream, where it can cause life-threatening complications.
The cause of type 1 diabetes is different from the more common type 2 diabetes. In type 2, the islet cells are still functioning, but the body becomes resistant to insulin or the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin.
- Standards of medical care in diabetes — 2011. Diabetes Care. 2011;34(suppl):1.
- Your guide to diabetes: Type 1 and type 2. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/type1and2/. Accessed Jan. 10, 2011.
- Diabetes mellitus. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/sec12/ch158/ch158b.html#sec12-ch158-ch158b-1105. Accessed Jan. 13, 2011.
- Shulman RM, et al. Type 1 diabetes mellitus in childhood. Medicine. 2010;38:679.
- Knip M, et al. Dietary intervention in infancy and later signs of beta-cell autoimmunity. New England Journal of Medicine. 2010;363:1900.
- de Paula FJA, et al. Novel insights into the relationship between diabetes and osteoporosis. Diabetes and Metabolism Research and Reviews. 2010;26:622.
- Sims-Robinson C, et al. How does diabetes accelerate Alzheimer disease pathology? Nature Reviews: Neurology. 2010;6:551.
- Levitsky LL, et al. Management of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents. http://www.uptodate.com/home.index.html. Accessed Jan. 10, 2011.
- Levitsky LL, et al. Complications and screening in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus. http://www.uptodate.com/home.index.html. Accessed Jan. 10, 2011.
- Ketoacidosis (DKA). American Diabetes Association. http://www.diabetes.org/type-1-diabetes/ketoacidosis.jsp. Accessed Jan. 14, 2011.
- Shapiro S, et al. The role of complementary and alternative therapies in pediatric diabetes. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America. 2009;38:791.
- Collazzo-Clavell M (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Jan. 19, 2011.
- Types of insulin. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/medicines_ez/insert_C.htm. Accessed Feb. 24, 2011.
Find Mayo Clinic on