Juvenile Diabetes

Juvenile diabetes is popularly known as Type 1 diabetes. Other names for it are Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM). This type of diabetes is called juvenile diabetes, because it is usually first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults. Various tests are used to diagnoses juvenile diabetes. Some of them are as below:

Urine sugar test: Urine contains different substances for different types of diseases. Urinalysis in diabetes shows glucose and ketone bodies in the urine. In the test, the urine is tested for chemical composition including sugar. Excessive sugar in urine means that the person in question has diabetes.

There are several types of urine tests available:

1) Fasting urine test
2) Random urine test
3) Mid-stream urine test
4) 24-hour urine test

Fasting plasma glucose test: This test is used widely to measure your blood glucose level after 8 hours have passed without eating. It is the preferred test as it is more convenient and more reliable when done in the morning. Pre-diabetes can also be measured by this test. If the fasting glucose level is 126mg/dL or above, you have juvenile diabetes.

Random plasma glucose test: The random glucose test can be done without taking in to account the diet factor unlike fasting glucose test. This random glucose test, along with an assessment of symptoms, is used to diagnose diabetes but it can not be used to diagnoses prediabetes.

After diagnosis that a person has diabetes, the short term goals of treatment are to cure diabetic ketoacidosis (also called DKA) and high blood glucose levels. Because of the sudden onset and severity of symptoms in juvenile diabetes, treatment for newly diagnosed people may involve hospitalization.

The long-term goals usually aim towards increasing life span, reducing symptoms, and resisting diabetes-related complications such as blindness, kidney failure, and amputation of limbs.

All these aims can be fulfilled through education, insulin use, meal planning and weight control, exercise and careful self-testing of blood glucose levels among others.