Diabetes is a horrible disease that 29.1 million people worldwide suffer from. Diabetes often receives the stereotype that it is a disease for obese people. This stereotype is very wrong in many ways. First of all there are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. My younger brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 6 years ago at the age of 8. He is far from obese and according to “diabetesresearch.org” it is unknown but all signs point to genetics. My grandmother also had type 1 diabetes and that somewhat clarifies that my younger brother got it genetically.

Diabetes is a disease where your pancreas stops producing insulin causing your blood sugar to rise or drop drastically. Unfortunately, the disease is incurable at the moment but there are different ways to maintain your blood sugar. My brother uses a device called an insulin pump which pumps the amount of insulin into your blood by choosing how much and when. The other way to maintain it is by taking shots every time your blood sugar rises. Blood sugar can rise from eating carbohydrates and sugar. Every food contains carbs so insulin must be pumped after every meal. This disease is no joke and you can easily go into a coma or die if it is not maintained properly.

Although the cause is not for certain it is believed by researches that it is completely genetic. You do not have to be born with the disease even though some are. This trustworthy article states that it has to do with your genes and that all research points to diabetes being genetically diagnosed.

Source 1: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/type-1-diabetes

Source 2: http://www.jdrf.org/about/fact-sheets/type-1-diabetes-facts/