Safe to say, most people have heard of diabetes, the disease that affects the way your body regulates blood sugar, or glucose. And as this website points out, despite sharing a name, type 1 and type 2 diabetes are quite different. People with type 1 diabetes dont produce insulin. People with type 2 diabetes dont respond to insulin as well as they should -- and as the disease progresses, they often dont make enough insulin. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease, caused by a response in the body against insulin-producing beta cells, according to Diabetes Research Connection.