As Oprah’s recent show demonstrated, understanding the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 is difficult. To understand why it is so horrifying for children and adolescences to develop Type 2 Diabetes, you must comprehend the difference.

For the record, Type 1 Diabetes or Juvenile Diabetes as it is commonly referred to is an autoimmune disease and is treated with insulin. Type 1 Diabetes cannot be prevented by changes in lifestyle or diet. There is NO cure for Type 1 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is often called adult-onset Diabetes because historically it was diagnosed later in life and is often the result of poor diet and excess weight. Type 2 Diabetes can often be managed by making dramatic lifestyle changes including diet and exercise. In both cases, Diabetes can cause the same serious long-term health problems such as heart disease, kidney failure nerve damage, blindness and neuropathy to name the more serious complications associated with the disease.

As the parent of a Type 1 Diabetic, you may be wondering why I am committed to supporting the Let’s Move Campaign. To manage my daughter’s disease, she exercises nearly every day. Our family does not need the gentle push of a public education initiative or a more direct nudge through the Fist Lady’s bully pulpit to keep moving. My motivation to engage in this public awareness and advocacy effort is not a result of my direct self-interest. Michelle Obama’s leadership inspires me because I desperately want to help other families avoid a fate that my family could not avoid.

It makes me shudder to think about the lives of these young Type 2 Diabetics. Children who are my daughter’s age and are facing a lifetime full of health complications, doctor’s visits and battles with food. In every case, this life sentence was preventable. I am on board and ready to MOVE!