As Diabetes Awareness week commences around the nation, Lauren Said-Moorhouse takes a closer look at the disease described as the epidemic of the 21st century.

Type 1 diabetics have to inject themselves with insulin several times a day. Image: momboleum

To look at her, you would never think that anything were wrong with Frida Paréus. Yet just four and a half years ago, doctors predicted that she would only have a few weeks left to live. On November 22, 2005, whilst travelling on a gap year through Italy, Frida was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes.

The 26-year-old Sydney student is one of the 890,000 people who have been diagnosed with the disease in Australia according to Diabetes Australia. The organisation says that by 2031 it is estimated 3.3 million Australians will have type 2 diabetes.

“Diabetes is the epidemic of the 21st century and the driver of premature death and serious complications including heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, blindness and amputation,” says Professor Greg Johnson, Victoria’s Chief Executive Officer for Diabetes Australia.

Diabetes is a chronic disease and has several different types with the most common forms being type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes mellitus, the latter of which can occur during pregnancy.

Diabetes can be prevented by a healthy eating plan and a good exercise regime. But this course of action only reflects one type of diabetes – type 2. In fact, there is another type of diabetes – type 1 – which affects only 10-15 per cent Australian’s currently diagnosed with diabetes.

For type 1 diabetes, there is no cure. This is the disease that Frida, and many other Australians, will live with for the rest of their lives

Frida first started to get unusual symptoms while working and travelling with friends in Italy. At first, it was little things – weight loss, constant fatigue and severe headaches – yet like many young people, she rationalised the signs excusing them as work-related maladies and carried on enjoying her travels.

Several months passed while Frida’s health woes came sporadically, until one week she awoke and couldn’t feel her hands.

“Within a two week period, I had lost feeling in my hands followed by my feet. A week later, I partially lost my sight,’ she says.

“It would come and go, which was terrible because I worked in a bar and was docked two weeks pay because I would constantly be dropping bottles because I didn’t know I was carrying them or because I couldn’t quite see where to put them back to.”

Her family had urged her to go to the doctors for months and finally, Frida listened to their pleas. She went to a free clinic in Italy and had her blood tested the following morning and was informed to return the following afternoon for the results.

Frida brought a friend along to help her understand the results. However, she didn’t need a translator to understand the gravity of the situation because upon her return, an ambulance was waiting to take her to the nearest hospital immediately.

“The doctors informed Thomas who relayed it to me that my blood sugar levels were really high. As a normal diabetic person, doctors say that you should read between 6-10g. I had a reading of 58g – basically my body was rotting on the inside,” Frida says.

She was immediately brought by ambulance to the local hospital and placed in the intensive care unit. Over the course of the next few days, Frida and her family were informed that she had been living with her unmanaged diabetes for the previous eight months. Doctors did not like her chances of survival and told her family that Frida would only have a few weeks left.

However, after several weeks on the correct course of insulin treatments, Frida started to improve and despite the odds against her, made a full recovery which doctors attributed to her young age.

At the time, Frida believed that she got her diabetes from the unhealthy lifestyle she was living.

“I blamed it on the lifestyle that I had. I didn’t eat enough, sleep enough and drank too much alcohol. I thought I’d gotten it because of the way I lived my life in Italy,” she says.

However, type 1 diabetes is the most vigorous version of the disease and generally cannot be prevented by amendments in lifestyle or dietary needs which is more associated with type 2. The most common cause of type 1 is as a result of genetic disposition.

It was only recently after the death of her grandfather that Frida learnt her family had a history of diabetes.

“It was a relief finding out from my mum. Now that I know it is genetic has made me feel so much better because I always felt guilty. But I actually had diabetes already and there was nothing I could have done to stop it.”

”Sometimes it brings me down so I put it [diabetes] in this mental box, so I won’t let it take hold of me and turn me into someone else that I’m not. I have a good life with a great home, boyfriend and family – so how can you complain when a lot of people have a lot less.”

One of the organisations that is helping young Australians is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). The JDRF mission statement is to find a cure for type 1 diabetes and its associated difficulties by conducting research into the disease. It is the world’s largest not-for-profit supporter of diabetes research and has invested over $1.6 billion since inception in 1970. The mission of JDRF is constant: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research.

In May, the foundation held its annual ‘Jelly Baby Month’.

Jelly babies are a quick fix for diabetics when their glucose levels get too low. Image: Andrew_1000

“Jelly babies can be a lifesaver for people with type 1 diabetes because they cannot regulate their own blood glucose, so a quick sugar fix is essential when blood glucose falls dangerously low,” says Chief Executive Officer of JDRF Australia, Mike Wilson.

Type 1 diabetes is also known as Insulin Dependent Diabetes. If left untreated, sufferers of the disease can develop a condition called ketoacidosis which results in an accumulation of dangerous chemical substances in the bloodstream from the burning of fat.

Children and adults with type 1 diabetes are unable to naturally produce the chemical insulin, which helps the body lower its glucose or sugar levels. In addition to a specific diet, type 1 diabetics need up to six insulin injections every day or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump just to stay alive. The injections usually occur just before meal times to control the amount the levels of glucose in the body.

“Even with insulin, diabetes can lead to devastating long term health complications including blindness, heart disease, stroke and nerve damage,” says Wilson.

JDRF uses jelly babies to promote type 1 diabetes as many people use this popular sweet when they experience hypoglycaemia or a “hypo”. This occurs when the body’s glucose levels are too low and there is an excess of insulin in the body which can be a life-threatening situation. To treat a hypo, diabetics must quickly raise their sugar levels by drinking soft drink for example, or eating a few jelly babies.

Christine Kennedy is another young Australian facing the disease after being diagnosed at age 10, with type 1 diabetes.

Now at just 23 years old, Christine is a vibrant, young woman who challenges her illness head on. Christine’s type 1 diabetes was also a result of genetic occurrence in her family.

“To tell you the truth I just had to cope. I was lucky in some ways because my older sister Belinda has diabetes too. She was diagnosed when she was 16, so she was a good support to me. Belinda showed me my life didn’t have to change,” says Christine.

Christine attributes part of her success of coping with her diabetes to using the myriad of organisations that have been set up to help aid sufferers.

“Diabetes Australia are great for young people with diabetes because they run camps, meetings and so on for kids. They get to meet other kids with diabetes and are able to build up a network of friends who understand just get what they are going through.

“The team at the Children’s Hospital Westmead were also fantastic as they were there 24/7 to answer questions and just to have a chat. Their support was good for me and my family during the early days of readjustment.”

But whilst groups like Diabetes Australia and JDRF work to increase public awareness, diabetes will continue to be and increasing problem. Professor Greg Johnson, the Victorian CEO of Diabetes Australia, is currently in Melbourne during Diabetes Awareness week to help launch a new campaign to raise awareness about the correlation between diabetes and kidney disease.

“Diabetes accounts for 34 per cent of new cases of end stage kidney disease and is a greater primary cause of kidney damage than excess alcohol consumption and smoking,” he says.

“We know people with diabetes complications are ‘frequent flyers’ in the hospital system and that 32 per cent of preventable hospital admissions in Australia relate to diabetes and its complications.”

Christine and Frida both acknowledge that in the future, the number of Australians diagnosed will dramatically increase and have problems with diabetes regardless of the type.

“I think adult onset, type 2 diabetes, which is preventable, is becoming an issue because of the growing obesity factors in Australia,” Christine says.

“This is affecting people at a younger and younger age. Diabetes awareness still isn’t what it needs to be and I think if more people were educated on what it is and how to prevent type 2, it could make a small difference as prevention at the moment is better than a cure.”