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Definition
Your body needs carbohydrates to keep it going. Carbohydrates, a form of energy, are broken down into a simple sugar called glucose, which every cell in your body needs to survive. Glucose passes from the small intestine into the bloodstream. Cells require the hormone insulin, produced by the pancreas, which allows glucose to pass from the blood into cells. In type 2 diabetes, the body's cells are resistant to the actions of insulin and the pancreas produces too little insulin. Glucose builds up in the blood and spills into the urine. High blood glucose levels cause the health problems, such as heart disease, associated with diabetes.
This form of diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases in the United States. People with type 2 diabetes usually develop the condition after age 45, and the risk for getting it increases with age. About 18 percent of the U.S. population 65 and older has diabetes. However, the number of children with type 2 diabetes is increasing rapidly along with their rising obesity rates.
Prognosis
Diabetes does not have a cure. However, the disease can be controlled. Treatment includes dietary changes, exercise, weight loss and usually oral medications or insulin injections.
More on Diabetes Type 2 What Is Type 2 Diabetes?
Could You Have Diabetes?
Hold the Hotdogs and the Baloney
Educating Minorities on Diabetes
Q & A: Obesity Brings Diabetes Risk
Insulin resistance syndrome/metabolic syndrome X
Control Your Diabetes With Exercise
Common Myths About Diabetes
In the Encyclopedia: Blood-viscosity reducing drugs
Diabetic ketoacidosis
Diabetic foot infections
Diabetes mellitus
Blood sugar tests
This article was reviewed June 2005, by Simeon Margolis, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology, and Biologic Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
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