Insulin dependent diabetes is form of diabetes that usually begins in childhood. It only accounts for 5% of the diabetes in the United States but is in some ways more dangerous and has a greater impact on a person’s life than non-insulin dependent diabetes. A person with insulin dependent diabetes can become sick very quickly. Simply eating the wrong way or taking medication wrong can cause a person to be hospitalized, go into a coma, or have a seizure.

Insulin is a hormone, made by the pancreas, which allows the glucose, or sugar, in the bloodstream to enter into cells and be converted into energy. In insulin dependent diabetes the pancreas makes little or no natural insulin. Damage to the pancreas could occur for a number of reasons, but in most cases of insulin dependent diabetes, the pancreatic cells are attacked by the body’s own immune system. The reason for …