Type 1 Diabetes Research Paper

According to the American Diabetes Association, 28.5 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes. Out of that number, there are 215,000 children under the age of 20 with the disease. About 1 out of every 400 children and adolescents have diabetes. Diabetes is broken down into Type 1 and Type 2. Diabetes is a chronic condition that will require treatment for the lifetime of the patient. For this paper I will explain the differences between the two and focus on the treatment of Type 1.There are several different ways to manage Type 1 Diabetes. Fine needle syringe, insulin pen or insulin pump. Should the insulin pump be a required form of treatment instead of the other two options? To answer this question, the basis for the research paper will be on how well the insulin pump regulates the blood sugar over the other 2 types of treatments.

Diabetes also known as high blood sugar levels, develops when your body either cannot make enough insulin or can't properly use the insulin that it makes. Diabetes has been around since the 1500's. The ancient Chinese described the signs of diabetes as described as "large amounts of urine." (Beaser 2). It wasn't until the ancient Greeks who actually gave the name of diabetes, which meant "to flow through." (Beaser 2) Later the Latin's added the word mellitus, which means sweet urine. The medical term is now diabetes mellitus. To understand the multiple ways to treat diabetes, you first need to understand what diabetes is and how your body reacts to it. Everyone needs food to survive, without food you will starve to death. Once we put food into our mouth, our body breaks it down to be used for fuel by the cells within our body. This process is called metabolism. Food is f...

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...es that insulin pumps "might result in better control of blood sugar for people with Type 1 diabetes"( Gruman). "Ramin Alemzadeh,M.D., director of the Diabetes program at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, cautioned that although the researchers reported pumps might improve glucose control overall, pediatric patients should not expect major changes in the longer-term control of blood glucose." "In our experience we don't see a significant overall blood glucose improvement beyond six months or one year of treatment in most children. Initially, the patients HBA1c levels improve, but after a while levels begin to rise and are not significantly different from where they started." "A patients diabetes management starts with them and their family. How well they do is independent of which method of insulin administration they use." (Gruman)