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Type 1 diabetes - basic notions

What is type 1 diabetes?

Demystify
the disease

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic and autoimmune disease characterized by the insufficient production of insulin, a hormone that is essential in transforming blood sugar (or glucose) into energy, through the pancreas. This lack in insulin secretion leads to an accumulation of blood sugar, also known as hyperglycemia. Thus the body and its organs no longer receive the fuel needed for proper functioning, since the sugar is trapped in the blood. The symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) must always be taken seriously: untreated hyperglycemia can be deadly in the space of a few days.
Most T1D cases develop during childhood, the teen years or in early adult life. Rare cases are diagnosed in later years.

So far, Type 1 Diabetes is neither preventable nor curable.

So far, Type 1 Diabetes is neither preventable nor curable. T1D is presumably linked to the autoimmune destruction of insulin producing cells in the pancreas, however the exact cause is unknown.
Découvrir le diabète chez l'enfant

The exact cause is still unknown

Mental load of a child living with type 1 diabetes

Living with type 1 diabetes involves a daily mental burden for both the young person and the parent; manage their blood sugar levels, their injections, their diet, their carbohydrate calculation, their sports activity, the vagaries of everyday life. It is a constant load that the child and the parents must carry on their shoulders 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

Fred accompanies you and is present to ease this load through its various programs and through encounters. When we talk about it, we feel better. Together, we understand each other and we feel less alone. Call your friend Fred! 

Source
Canadian Diabetes Association
GEOFFROY, Louis Geoffroy and Monique Gonthier, Diabetes in Children, CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal, 2009
Support for young diabetics

Allophone document