About Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes is an incurable disease that affects the way the body uses food. Diabetes causes glucose levels in the blood to be too high. Normally, during digestion the body changes sugars, starches, and other foods into a form of sugar called glucose.Glucose is carried to the body’s cells and, with the help of insulin , is converted into energy. In healthy people, blood glucose levels are kept within normal ranges by proper insulin function.
People develop type 2 diabetes because the cells in the muscles, liver, and fat do not use insulin properly. As a result, the amount of sugar in the blood increases, while the cells are starved of energy. Over time, high blood sugar damages nerves and blood vessels, leading to complications such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, nerve problems, gum infections, and amputation.
Impact Of Type 2 Diabetes
As stated above, type 2 diabetes can lead to a greater chance of health problems which could in some cases affect your ability to work and could therefore affect your personal income.
Another factor to bear in mind is that increased care may be needed, from your family or from a carer, particularly as you get older.
With the right support and good diabetes management, the potential negative effects of type 2 diabetes can be minimised.
Diabetes Facts And Figures
- More than 4.9 million people in the UK have diabetes
- 13.6 million people are now at increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the UK
- 850,000 people are currently living with type 2 diabetes but are yet to be diagnosed
- However, it’s important to remember that diabetes is not a death sentence. Research has consistently shown that for some people, combined lifestyle interventions – including diet, physical activity and sustained weight loss – can be effective in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes by about 50%.
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What Causes Type 2 Diabetes And Other Forms Of Diabetes Mellitus
Many of the foods and beverages that you consume contain glucose, which your body processes to make energy. Your pancreas produces a hormone called insulin to help the glucose in your blood enter your muscles, fat, and liver to provide energy.
Faqs: Frequently Asked Questions
Why did type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes?
Most people with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed as children, although in rare cases some are not diagnosed until they are adults.
Are type 1 diabetes symptoms in adults different than in children?
No, adults and children experience the same symptoms.
Is there a type 1 diabetes cure?
Type 1 diabetes can be managed with insulin, but there is no cure.
In type 1 diabetes vs type 2, is diet as important?
Even though diet and lifestyle changes cannot reverse type 1 diabetes, and they have the potential of reversing type 2, learning what, how much, and when to eat can still help you have the most effective type 1 diabetes diet to manage your condition.
What type of doctor is best for type 1 diabetes treatment?
Even though an ER doctor or your primary care physician will likely be the one to first diagnose your type 1 diabetes, an endocrinologist is the best doctor to help you learn how to monitor your blood sugar and manage your condition.
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Type 1 Vs Type 2 Diabetes
Although most available statistics do not differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, according to the CDC, 90-95% of all cases of diabetes are type 2, though many stats state it is closer to 95%.
Type 1 diabetes is much less common than type 2, making up 5% of all cases of diabetes.
Type 1 is sometimes referred to as childhood onset diabetes because it is frequently recognized early on, though it still can develop later in life.
While both types of diabetes involve high blood sugar levels, the origins of the high blood sugar are different.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas, causing it to stop producing insulin. Without insulin, sugar from the food you eat cannot get into body cells and be used for energy.
Because of this, type 1 diabetics must take shots of insulin with meals in order to survive.
In type 2 diabetes, the condition results from the bodys ineffective use of insulin, and generally comes down to one of, or a combination of two things insulin resistance or pancreatic function decline.
Insulin resistance is when your bodys cells dont respond to the hormone insulin. Insulin is the key that unlocks cells so that glucose from the bloodstream can enter.
Type 2 diabetes is typically considered to be a lifestyle-related chronic disease, because acquiring an active lifestyle and a healthy diet can increase insulin sensitivity and assist with blood sugar regulation.
Prevalence Across Diabetes Types
Type 2 diabetes is, by far, the most prevalent form of diabetes.
In the UK, type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90% of all diabetes cases and type 1 diabetes accounts for approximately 10%.
The IDF reports that the proportion of people with type 2 diabetes is on the rise in most countries.
Whilst type 1 diabetes is less common, overall, than type 2 diabetes, the vast majority of children with diabetes will have type 1.
In 2015, more than 542,000 children in the world were living with type 1 diabetes.
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Box : What’s In The Data
The data used in this publication are from the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System , a collaborative network of provincial and territorial chronic disease surveillance systems, led by the Public Health Agency of Canada . The CCDSS identifies chronic disease cases from provincial and territorial administrative health databases, including physician billing claims and hospital discharge abstract records, linked to provincial and territorial health insurance registry records using a unique personal identifier. Data on all residents eligible for provincial or territorial health insurance are captured in health insurance registries.
While CCDSS data reflect the health status of the Canadian population, they may also reflect changes in data collection methods, coding and classification systems, or clinical guidelines and billing practices. These factors must also be taken into consideration when interpreting time trends.
Definition of diagnosed diabetes in the CCDSSCanadians aged 1 year and older are identified as having diagnosed diabetes if they have: at least one hospitalization record or at least two physician claims in a two-year period with an International Classification of Diseases code for diabetes. Females aged 10 to 54 years diagnosed with diabetes 120 days preceding or 180 days following a pregnancy-related visit are removed, to exclude possible cases of gestational diabetes.
What Are The Treatments For Type 2 Diabetes
Treatment for type 2 diabetes involves managing your blood sugar levels. Many people are able to do this by living a healthy lifestyle. Some people may also need to take medicine.
- A healthy lifestyle includes following a healthy eating plan and getting regular physical activity. You need to learn how to balance what you eat and drink with physical activity and diabetes medicine, if you take any.
- Medicines for diabetes include oral medicines, insulin, and other injectable medicines. Over time, some people will need to take more than one type of medicine to control their diabetes.
- You will need to check your blood sugar regularly. Your health care provider will tell you how often you need to do it.
- It’s also important to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels close to the targets your provider sets for you. Make sure to get your screening tests regularly.
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Signs And Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes
The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can be so mild that you don’t notice them. About 8 million people who have it don’t know it. Symptoms include:
- Being very thirsty
- Weight loss without trying
- Getting more infections
If you have dark rashes around your neck or armpits, see your doctor. These are called acanthosis nigricans, and they can be signs that your body is becoming resistant to insulin.
When To See A Doctor
Visit your GP as soon as possible if you experience the main symptoms of diabetes, which include:
- weight loss and loss of muscle bulk
- itching around the penis or vagina, or frequent episodes of thrush
- cuts or wounds that heal slowly
- blurred vision
Type 1 diabetes can develop quickly over weeks or even days.
Many people have type 2 diabetes for years without realising because the early symptoms tend to be general.
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Type 2 Diabetes Prevention
Adopting a healthy lifestyle can help you lower your risk of diabetes.
- Lose weight. Dropping just 7% to 10% of your weight can cut your risk of type 2 diabetes in half.
- Get active. Thirty minutes of brisk walking a day will cut your risk by almost a third.
- Eat right. Avoid highly processed carbs, sugary drinks, and trans and saturated fats. Limit red and processed meats.
- Quit smoking. Work with your doctor to keep from gaining weight after you quit, so you don’t create one problem by solving another.
Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes
The classic symptoms of diabetes are the following:
- fatigue
- unusual thirst and
- unexplained weight loss.
In type 1 diabetes, the symptoms usually progress quickly and are often dramatic. In type 2 diabetes, symptoms are slower to progress. However, it is important to note that many people who have type 2 diabetes may have no symptoms. These people may find out they have type 2 diabetes when they go to the doctor for another, unrelated problem.
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What Is Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a lifelong disease that keeps your body from using insulin the way it should. People with type 2 diabetes are said to have insulin resistance.
People who are middle-aged or older are most likely to get this kind of diabetes. It used to be called adult-onset diabetes. But type 2 diabetes also affects kids and teens, mainly because of childhood obesity.
Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes. There are about 29 million people in the U.S. with type 2. Another 84 million have prediabetes, meaning their blood sugar is high but not high enough to be diabetes yet.
How Is Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosed
Because the symptoms can develop rapidly, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes is usually made by a pediatrician or a physician in the emergency room. Pediatricians might check a childs glucose levels if there is unexplained weight loss or sudden bedwetting. Glucose tests are also commonly run when a person with type 1 diabetes symptoms arrives at the hospital.
Doctors can also diagnose type 1 diabetes by running several tests to check blood-sugar levels. The primary screening test for type 1 diabetes is the random blood-sugar test, which tells physicians the amount of glucose circulating in a persons blood at a specific moment in time. A blood-sugar level of 200 milligrams per deciliter suggests diabetes.
The secondary test is a glycated hemoglobin test, or A1C test. This test measures the average amount of glucose in a persons bloodstream over the past 90 days as a percentage.
A normal A1C level is between 5 and 5.5%, while anything higher than 5.7% indicates diabetes. When diabetes is controlled, a persons A1C levels will be low.
Its a useful test because you dont want to overreact, says Dr. Christofides. If someone has hyperglycemia for a week or a couple days, their A1C isnt going to rise. This gives us a good reflection of what the glucose level was for the past three months.
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Additional Symptoms Of Type 1 Diabetes In Babies And Toddlers
- Weight loss
- Failure to thrive, a condition involving weight loss or inability to gain weight combined with stunted growth
- Colic or fussiness that just wont let up
- Poor-quality sleep that doesnt improve no matter what you try
- Bedwetting, especially after successful potty-training
All of these symptoms are a result of hyperglycemiatoo much glucose circulating in our bloodstream, also known as high blood sugar. Any person experiencing hyperglycemia, particularly after a viral illness, should seek immediate medical help.
What Are The Treatments For Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes must be treated with insulin. To do this, a person with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin under their skin where it can be absorbed into their bloodstream to help glucose access the cells that require it. Insulin cant be taken in pill form because the digestive juices in the stomach would destroy the insulin before it could work.
Treating T1D is all about the amount and timing of insulin, as well as the best way to get the right dose of this essential hormone to assure that the glucose circulating in your blood is able to be properly absorbed by your body. Having too much glucose in your body can cause serious complications as can having too little glucose in your blood .
Insulin can be delivered by:
Lexie, known as the divabetic, is a Black diabetes advocate who posts everything from giveaways to advice on dating with type 1 diabetes. She frequently shares posts about diabetes-friendly food and humor.
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Risk Factors For Type 2 Diabetes
There is no single cause of type 2 diabetes but some factors can put you at greater risk. They include:
- being age 40 or over
- being overweight
- having a family member who has diabetes
- having had gestational diabetes
- having given birth to a baby that weighed more than 4 kg at birth
- high blood pressure
- high cholesterol or other fats in the blood or
- member of a high-risk ethnic group.
Number Of People With Diabetes Reaches 48 Million
Diabetes is on the rise, with 5.3 million expected to be living with the condition by 2025. Our findings also show that people with type 2 diabetes are 50% more likely to die prematurely.
Diabetes on the rise
3.9 million people are currently living with a diagnosis of diabetes, and 90% of those with type 2. In addition, there are almost a million more people living with type 2 diabetes who dont know they have it because they havent been diagnosed yet, bringing the total number up to more than 4.8 million. Our data shows a stark increase in the number of people living with a diabetes diagnosis in the UK of more than 100,000 from last year. At this rate the number of people with diabetes, including the undiagnosed population, is expected to rise to 5.3 million by 2025.
Complications of diabetes
People with type 2 diabetes are 50% more likely to die prematurely than those without diabetes. A common complication of diabetes that can lead to early death is heart disease. People with type 2 diabetes are also two to two-and-a-half times more likely to experience heart failure and twice more likely to have a heart attack compared to people without diabetes.
Diabetes risk factors
Age, family history, and ethnicity can contribute to someones risk, with people of African-Caribbean, Black African or South Asian descent two to four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than white people.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Diabetes
Symptoms of Type 2 diabetes include:
- Increased thirst
- Weight loss, despite eating more than usual
- Fatigue
- Having a family history of diabetes
- Having an African American, Hispanic/Latino American, American Indian, or Alaska Native racial or ethnic background
- Being physically active less than three times a week
- Having had gestational diabetes or giving birth to a baby who weighed more than nine pounds
- Having high blood pressure
Sensation Problems And Amputation
Diabetes causes mild loss of sensation in the extremities in as many as 70 percent of adults who have it. Amputations of lower extremities may eventually be necessary, especially for people with blood vessel disease. More than 60 percent of all nontraumatic amputations of lower limbs occur in people with diabetes. Approximately 73,000 lower-limb amputations were performed in diabetics age 20 and older.
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How Many Canadians Are Newly Diagnosed With Diabetes Each Year
In 20132014, close to 200,000 Canadians were newly diagnosed with diabetes . This represented 0.4 new cases per 1,000 population among children and youth and 7.6 new cases per 1,000 population among adults. Following a pattern similar to the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, incidence generally increases with age and is higher among males than among females , both overall and in most age groups .
Figure 2: Incidence of diagnosed diabetes , by age group and sex, Canada, 20132014
| Age group | |
|---|---|
| 6.5 | 5.3 |
Note: The 95% confidence interval shows an estimated range of values which is likely to include the true value 19 times out of 20.Data source: Public Health Agency of Canada, using Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System data files contributed by provinces and territories, May 2017.
Countries With High Diabetes Prevalence
The International Diabetes Federation currently states that the top 5 countries with the highest amount of people with diabetes are as follows:
- China: 109 million
- 21.1%
All of the top 10 nations are small islands.
In terms of non-islands, the nation with the highest diabetes prevalence is Saudi Arabia with a 17.6% prevalence. The IDF notes that three quarters of the worlds adult population are living in low and middle-income countries.
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