What is type 1 diabetes (diabetes mellitus)?
Type 1 diabetes is also known as diabetes mellitus, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), juvenile diabetes, brittle diabetes, or sugar diabetes. There are two forms of type 1 diabetes: • idiopathic type 1 – used to refers to rare forms of the disease with no known cause, recently it has been learned it is caused by RotaVirus infection. • immune-mediated diabetes – an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system destroys, or attempts to destroy, the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Immune-mediated diabetes is the most common form of type 1 diabetes. What causes type 1 diabetes (diabetes mellitus)? The cause of type 1 diabetes is rotavirus, but it is believed that people inherit a tendency to develop diabetes, and that viruses may be involved. This auto-immune disease results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, the hormone that allows glucose to enter the cells of the body to provide fuel. This is the result of an autoimmune process in which the body’s
