Can you live a full healthy life with type 1 diabetes?

Currently, there is no cure for type 1 diabetes. However, what we know about this disease is constantly evolving, new technologies and drugs are being developed, and researchers are making significant progress. Right now, people of all ages are living full and healthy lives with type 1 diabetes. Traditionally, people with type 1 diabetes have had shorter lives, and life expectancy has been said to have been reduced by more than 20 years. Type 1 diabetes is a long-term health condition that can reduce life expectancy, although medical advances, such as insulin therapy, have improved outcomes.

Uncontrolled blood glucose levels and related health complications can reduce life expectancy for people with type 1 diabetes. Despite the risks of this disease, people with type 1 diabetes can live long, healthy lives. This work and other research in the United States and around the world can help to further extend the lives of people with type 1 diabetes. A second study published in the same edition of JAMA showed that people with type 1 diabetes with better blood sugar control lived longer than those with poorer blood sugar control. Among people who are currently 65 years old, the average man can expect to live to age 83 and the average woman to live to age 85. Participants addressed the challenge of educating young people about type 1 diabetes without using fear tactics focused on devastating complications or, at the other extreme, of not educating them properly so as not to frighten them of possible complications.

While studies have examined the effectiveness of diabetes education programs for patients with type 1 diabetes, they have focused on achieving better glycemic control (35.3), not on patients' perception of teaching techniques. For participants diagnosed as teenagers or adults, it was important to meet another person with type 1 diabetes. Therefore, they will usually spend a longer period of their lives with the condition and subsequent complications. For the participants, it was important not to allow type 1 diabetes to limit their activities, whether they were diagnosed at an early age, in adolescence or as an adult.

If you're diagnosed with diabetes, your doctor may order additional tests to detect the antibodies that are common in type 1 diabetes, using a test called C-peptide, which measures the amount of insulin produced when fasting glucose is measured simultaneously. Participants noted that families can help their family member with diabetes to be healthier without making them feel different. As with type 1 diabetes, glucose builds up in the bloodstream and damages cells and tissues throughout the body. While you may want to understand how diabetes will affect your life expectancy, there's no simple answer.

Another participant, a 31-year-old man who was diagnosed at 16, believed that it was important to teach people with type 1 diabetes about the possible long-term consequences of the disease. Bob diligently managed his diabetes and kept a meticulous record of his blood sugar levels throughout his life, even before using useful technologies such as blood glucose monitors.