Questions about Diabetes: Insulin Needles, Type 2 & Autoimmune Diseases

[zmike]

I've been recently reading up on diabetes and there's some questions I can't find the answers to so if anyone here know please help

Are insulin needles used for type 2 diabetes?
-I keep hearing ppl saying that they are but isn't type 2 when the body doesn't respond to insulin?

Type 2 diabetes and hepatic glucose production?
-no idea what hepatic glucose production is

Only type 1 diabetes is autoimmune dieases.
-Shouldn't it be only type 2?

Thanks

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Are insulin needles used for type 2 diabetes?
-I keep hearing ppl saying that they are but isn't type 2 when the body doesn't respond to insulin?

You are correct that in type 2 diabetes, the body doesn't respond to insulin. For this reason, in most cases, you can't treat type 2 diabetes with regular insulin injections. However, according to wikipedia, insulin treatment can be used in some cases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus_type_2#Insulin_preparations).

Type 2 diabetes and hepatic glucose production?
-no idea what hepatic glucose production is

It's when the liver uses fat and/or protein to produce glucose via gluconeogenesis. Also, because the liver stores glucose as glycogen, it could also relate to the release of stored glucose from the liver.

Only type 1 diabetes is autoimmune dieases.
-Shouldn't it be only type 2?

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The body's T-Cells mistake insulin-producing cells in the pancreas for foreign invaders and destroy them. This results in the body's inability to produce insulin and regulate blood sugar levels. The causes of type 2 diabetes are not well understood and, although autoimmunity could possibly play some role, autoimmunity is not thought to be important in the onset of type 2 diabetes.

 

[Moonbear]

Type II diabetes is insulin resistance, not a complete inability to use insulin. In early stages, the body still can produce insulin, and the treatment is usually to help the body increase its own insulin production as well as increase the responsiveness to it. However, over time, the cells that produce the insulin can start to "burn out" from such high levels of production, or can't produce enough for the limited amounts of receptor to respond to, even with a boost from medicine. At that point, insulin injections become necessary.

In case it wasn't clear from ygggdrasil's post, hepatic is an adjective that means something related to the liver.