Diabetes types: diabetes type 1

Type 1 diabetes is caused by a malfunction of the immune system. Hereditary disposition and external factors such as a viral infection can also play a role.

- In Germany alone, around 400,000 people suffer from this type of diabetes

- Typical type 1 diabetes symptoms include frequent urination, thirst, tiredness and breath that smells of acetone

- In type 1 diabetes, the immune system's defense cells attack the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The exact causes of type 1 diabetes are still not fully understood: hereditary factors play a role - but not everyone who has a parent with the disease will develop it themselves. In addition, certain viral infections such as enteroviruses are suspected of contributing to the development of type 1 diabetes

- In type 1 diabetes, the disease begins before the age of 40, usually in childhood and adolescence. The disease progresses for a long time without symptoms, but can be detected by a blood test before it breaks out

- Those affected usually have to inject insulin for the rest of their lives

- There is also a delayed onset form of diabetes ("LADA diabetes"), type 1 diabetes, in which a residual function of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas is initially preserved. In this case, the disease only breaks out later, although it is a type 1 diabetes

Diabetes types: diabetes type 2

Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common of the two diabetes types:

- Of the six million people with diabetes in Germany, over 90 percent suffer from diabetes type 2

- Typical type 2 diabetes symptoms are: general listlessness, frequent infections, thirst, poorly healing wounds, dry and itchy skin and the urge to urinate

- Type 2 diabetes develops when hereditary factors and an unhealthy lifestyle come together. An unbalanced diet, lack of exercise and associated obesity cause the body's cells to respond less and less to insulin - the result is insulin resistance as the cause of type 2 diabetes: the hormone can no longer transport enough sugar into the cells and the blood sugar level rises to pathological levels

- As a rule, type 2 diabetes only occurs in later years ("old-age diabetes"); in the last twenty years, however, it has also been increasingly observed in adolescents and young adults