Type 2 diabetes is an impairment in the way the body regulates and uses sugar (glucose) as a fuel. This long-term (chronic) condition results in too much sugar circulating in the bloodstream. Eventually, high blood sugar levels can lead to disorders of the circulatory, nervous and immune systems.
In type 2 diabetes, there are primarily two interrelated problems at work. Your pancreas does not produce enough insulin — a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into your cells — and cells respond poorly to insulin and take in less sugar.
Type 2 diabetes used to be known as adult-onset diabetes, but both type 1 and type 2 diabetes can begin during childhood and adulthood. Type 2 is more common in older adults, but the increase in the number of children with obesity has led to more cases of type 2 diabetes in younger people.
There’s no cure for type 2 diabetes, but losing weight, eating well and exercising can help you manage the disease. If diet and exercise aren’t enough to manage your blood sugar, you may also need diabetes medications or insulin therapy.
Signs and symptoms of type 2 diabetes often develop slowly. In fact, you can be living with type 2 diabetes for years and not know it. When signs and symptoms are present, they may include:
Type 2 diabetes is primarily the result of two interrelated problems:
Factors that may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes include:
The prevalence of diabetes has increased worldwide mainly as a result of the obesity epidemic. The current treatment of type 2 diabetes is aimed at increasing insulin secretion, decreasing glucose absorption from the small intestine or improving insulin sensitivity. Tight glycemic control can reduce some of the complications of diabetes; however, this goal is often unattainable partly because of poor patient compliance, inadequate health care delivery, and the high cost of therapy.