Type I Diabetes: Symptoms and Treatment

Type I diabetes is a disease where the pancreas stops producing insulin, the hormone needed to bring glucose in the body’s cells to convert to energy. Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease, occurring when the body’s own immune system destroys the islet cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.

The disease had formerly been called “juvenile diabetes” and “insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus,” but the American Diabetes Association and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) recommended it be referred to only as Type I diabetes in 1997.

Type I diabetes, which accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all cases of diabetes, according to the ADA, is typically diagnosed in younger individuals. In some adults, the body simply doesn’t produce enough insulin, which is known as Type II diabetes, a far more common disease.