Type 1 diabetics can develop double diabetes

Patients with type 1 diabetes may develop "double diabetes"

There are around seven million diabetics in Germany. About five percent of them have type 1 diabetes. These patients must always be treated with insulin. However, they should also pay attention to a healthy lifestyle, otherwise there is a risk that they get "double diabetes".

Seven million Germans suffer from diabetes

According to health experts, around seven million people in Germany live with diabetes. 95 percent of them have type 2 diabetes. In a large proportion of these patients, the disease can be well controlled even without medication. Important here is a healthy lifestyle with balanced nutrition and adequate exercise. Diabetes type 1, on the other hand, must always be treated with insulin. But also type 1 diabetics must pay attention to an active lifestyle. Otherwise there is a risk that they will develop a "double diabetes".

Also, people with type 1 diabetes should pay attention to a healthy lifestyle, otherwise there is a risk that they contract a "double diabetes". (Image: Printemps / fotolia.com)

Therapy has made great progress

As the non-profit organization diabetesDE - Deutsche Diabetes-Hilfe writes in a recent release, the treatment of type 1 diabetes has made great progress in recent decades.

Thanks to modern insulins, the intensified conventional insulin and pump therapy, as well as new methods of controlling blood sugar, those concerned no longer have to comply with strict time and quantity requirements with their meals and insulin doses.

And bans are also a thing of the past: People with Type 1 diabetes are basically allowed to eat anything like their metabolism.

However, they should pay attention to a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. Sweets and high calorie foods should be the rule at a young age exceptions and daily physical activity, experts suggest.

Because, as ever more healthy children and adolescents in western industrialized countries, even young people with type 1 diabetes are increasingly overweight or even obese.

Like those affected by type 2 diabetes, they too can develop insulin resistance and, as a result, develop "double diabetes".

No special diets required

As a general rule: Neither type 1 diabetes nor type 2 diabetes require special diets or prohibit certain foods.

"Even sugar is not prohibited, but more than 25 grams per day, both metabolic and diabetes type 1 or type 2 ill people should not consume," said Professor Haak, board member of diabetesDE - German Diabetes Help and chief physician at Diabetes Center Mergentheim.

Because sugar consists of fast-digesting carbohydrates and ensures a rapid rise in blood sugar. High blood sugar levels must counteract patients with type 1 diabetes with individually adjusted insulin doses.

"A correct dosage to the point is not always easy, since many factors influence the blood sugar level," explains the diabetologist. Too high an insulin dose could then lead to low blood sugar.

In addition, foods that raise the blood sugar level are often not only very high in sugar but also fat and thus very high in calories.

"Being overweight now also affects many young people with type 1 diabetes," says Professor Haak.

Balanced diet and active lifestyle

"Overweight people with type 1 diabetes have more unstable blood glucose levels and need more insulin," explains Dr. rer. medic. Nicola Haller, Deputy CEO of diabetesDE - German Diabetes Aid.

In the long term, insulin resistance, as in type 2 diabetes, can be the result, which can even lead to "double diabetes".

Meanwhile, it is also known that children of mothers with type 1 diabetes are more likely to be overweight.

One possible cause is thought to be that, at times, high blood sugar levels in the womb have a long-term effect on the child's metabolism and may later promote the development of a metabolic syndrome.

"People with type 1 diabetes should therefore be overweight and have high blood sugar fluctuations with a balanced diet and active lifestyle," advises Nicola Haller, who is also chairwoman of the German Association for Diabetes Counseling and Training (VDBD) and diabetes consultant in the Vincenteum Medical Center in Augsburg is. (Ad)