Type 2 diabetes

What is Type 2 diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes is the most common variety of diabetes. It is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism in which the body effectively becomes resistant to the hormone insulin.

Initially, the person with this disorder has impaired tolerance to glucose. This develops into high blood glucose levels after eating and eventually high blood glucose levels even when fasting. However, some people with Type 2 diabetes remain relatively sensitive to insulin, while others have little or no insulin sensitivity. This difference affects treatment of the disease. In general, those Type 2 diabetics who are not obese retain some sensitivity to insulin.

What causes Type 2 diabetes?

The causes of Type 2 diabetes are complex. Insulin resistance is the main metabolic abnormality leading to the development of Type 2 diabetes. The most recent research suggests that Type 2 diabetes can be seen as a consequence of a series of physiological disruptions, each of which makes the person vulnerable to subsequent disruption of normal glucose metabolism. Insulin resistance is common and is usually caused by obesity. There are effectively three stages in the development of Type 2 diabetes:

Insulin resistance, for which the body compensates by increasing the secretion of insulin to allow the liver and muscles to continue to function normally.

Eventually the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin to compensate for the insulin resistance. This leads to a read more