When you have type 1 diabetes, your immune system mistakenly treats the beta cells in your pancreas that create insulin as foreign invaders and destroys them. When enough beta cells are destroyed, your pancreas can’t make insulin or makes so little of it that you need to take insulin to live. 

Insulin is a hormone that helps blood glucose (blood sugar) enter your body’s cells so that it can be used as energy. If you have diabetes, blood glucose can’t enter your cells so it builds up in your bloodstream. This causes high blood glucose (hyperglycemia). Over time, high blood glucose harms your body and can lead to diabetes-related complications if not treated.

Most of the time, type 1 diabetes is diagnosed in young people, but it can develop in anyone at any age. Scientists and researchers today aren’t sure how to prevent type 1 diabetes or what triggers it. If you have type 1 diabetes, you can live a long, healthy life by having a strong support system and managing it with your diabetes care team. The treatment plan you develop with your diabetes care team will include insulin, physical activity, and an eating plan to reach your health goals.

Type 1 Diabetes Symptoms

If you or your child have the following symptoms of diabetes, let your health care provider know. Symptoms include:

• Urinating often
• Feeling very thirsty
• Feeling very hungry—even though you are eating
• Extreme fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal
• Weight loss—even though you are eating more

It’s important to know when you first develop type 1 diabetes, you may not have any symptoms at all.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

In type 2 diabetes, your body does not use insulin properly—this is called insulin resistance. At first, your beta cells make extra insulin to make up for it. Over time, your pancreas can’t make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose at normal levels. Type 2 diabetes develops most often in middle-aged and older adults but is increasing in young people.

Treatment for people with type 2 diabetes can include an eating plan, physical activity, and oral or injectable medications (including insulin) to help you meet your target blood glucose levels.

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes

The following symptoms of diabetes are typical. However, some people with type 2 diabetes have symptoms so mild that they go unnoticed.

Common symptoms of diabetes:

• Urinating often
• Feeling very thirsty
• Feeling very hungry—even though you are eating
• Extreme fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal
• Tingling, pain, or numbness in the hands/feet 

Gestational Diabetes (GDM) is diabetes that develops only during pregnancy in someone who didn’t have it before, caused by pregnancy hormones blocking insulin, leading to high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) because the body can’t make enough insulin to compensate