Facts About Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, your body does not use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance. At first, the pancreas makes extra insulin to make up for it. But, over time your pancreas isn’t able to keep up and can’t make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose levels normal. Type 2 is treated it with lifestyle changes, oral medications (pills), and insulin.
When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can cause two problems: Right away, your cells may be starved for energy. Over time, high blood glucose levels may hurt your eyes, kidneys, nerves or heart. Some people with type 2 can control their blood glucose with healthy eating and being active. But, your doctor may need to also prescribe oral medications or insulin to help you meet your target blood glucose levels. Type 2 usually gets worse over time – even if you don’t need medications at first, you may need to later on.
Some groups have a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes than others. Type 2 diabetes is more common in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, as well as the aged population.
Confession: I just copied the information on the left straight from the Diabetes.org website. Thanks, guys!
Take the info with a a grain of salt. Or sugar. For example, I think it’s interesting that when they list the groups that have a higher risk of developing diabetes, they don’t mention overweight or obese people. What?! That’s like the main group! Also, the list of groups includes about everyone in the world except Europeans. I think there’s some crazy PC issues involved here.
The theory about why people with European ancestry have greater resistance to developing Type II? A longer history of farming and increased tolerance to the high-sugar, high-starch diet of farmers. There’s nothing wrong with the rest of the world, in fact, they’re the normal ones: Just good people with Hunter and Gatherer backgrounds who aren’t designed to eat bread and lots of sugar.