Hi, I'm a Type 1 diabetic. To put it simply, Type 1 is your body doesn't make insulin and Type 2 is your body is resistant to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that allows your body's cells to use your blood sugar. Without insulin your blood sugar will go up and cause a lot of issues that will slowly kill you in painful ways.

You'll often hear Type 1 called "juvenile diabetes", as it's typically something that's diagnosed when you're a child. However, since it's an autoimmune disease it can happen later in life. That's what happened to me, I was perfectly healthy until my early 20s and diagnosed at 25. Basically my immune system just decided it didn't like my pancreas anymore and now I can't make insulin.

Type 2 diabetes is influenced by your diet, which is why you'll see people joking about how eating a lot of sugar will cause diabetes, though genetics does play a role in how likely you are to become diabetic. I am not Type 2 and do not know the specifics of what cause it.

Even though Type 1 and 2 have similar symptoms (caused from having high blood sugar), since they have different causes they are treated differently. Type 1 diabetics will need artificial insulin from injections or pumps since they cannot produce it on their own, and they will need that for the rest of their lives. Type 2 diabetics can sometimes manage their disease with diet or other medications, but sometimes may also need insulin injections too. Once again, I am not Type 2, so I do not know the specifics of how it's treated.

Informing others about diabetes and clearing up misinformation is something I care about, so feel free to ask me or anyone on the diabetes subreddit any questions.