Type 2 Diabetes – With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t use insulin well and can’t keep blood sugar at normal levels. About 90-95% of people with diabetes have type 2. It develops over many years and is usually diagnosed in adults (but more and more in children, teens, and young adults).
Losing weight. Eating healthy food. Being active.
What are the two main types of diabetes?
The main difference between the type 1 and type 2 diabetes is that type 1 diabetes is a genetic condition that often shows up early in life, and type 2 is mainly lifestyle-related and develops over time. With type 1 diabetes, your immune system is attacking and destroying the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas.
– Although type 1 and type 2 diabetes both have things in common, there are lots of differences. Like what causes them, who they affect, and how you should manage them. For a start, type 1 affects 8% of everyone with diabetes. While type 2 diabetes affects about 90%. Some people get confused between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
This can mean you have to explain that what works for one type doesn’t work for the other, and that there are different causes. The main thing to remember is that both are as serious as each other. Having high blood glucose (or sugar) levels can lead to serious health complications, no matter whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
What is Type 2 diabetes mellitus in simple words?
Overview – 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.
What does mellitus stand for?
Excerpt – Diabetes mellitus is taken from the Greek word diabetes, meaning siphon – to pass through and the Latin word mellitus meaning sweet. A review of the history shows that the term “diabetes” was first used by Apollonius of Memphis around 250 to 300 BC.
- Ancient Greek, Indian, and Egyptian civilizations discovered the sweet nature of urine in this condition, and hence the propagation of the word Diabetes Mellitus came into being.
- Mering and Minkowski, in 1889, discovered the role of the pancreas in the pathogenesis of diabetes.
- In 1922 Banting, Best, and Collip purified the hormone insulin from the pancreas of cows at the University of Toronto, leading to the availability of an effective treatment for diabetes in 1922.
Over the years, exceptional work has taken place, and multiple discoveries, as well as management strategies, have been created to tackle this growing problem. Unfortunately, even today, diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the country and worldwide.
In the US, it remains as the seventh leading cause of death. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease, involving inappropriately elevated blood glucose levels. DM has several categories, including type 1, type 2, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), gestational diabetes, neonatal diabetes, and secondary causes due to endocrinopathies, steroid use, etc.
The main subtypes of DM are Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which classically result from defective insulin secretion (T1DM) and/or action (T2DM). T1DM presents in children or adolescents, while T2DM is thought to affect middle-aged and older adults who have prolonged hyperglycemia due to poor lifestyle and dietary choices.
Can type 2 diabetes be controlled without medication?
Diet and exercise – Lots of people with Type 2 diabetes don’t take any medication, and they instead treat their diabetes by eating well and moving more, our latest research DiRECT has even shown that weight loss can put Type 2 diabetes into remission, We have loads of information and advice that will help you live a healthy life,
Do type 2 diabetics get low blood sugar?
Physical activity – Exercise has many benefits. The tricky thing for people with type 1 diabetes is that it can lower blood glucose in both the short and long-term. Nearly half of children in a type 1 diabetes study who exercised an hour during the day experienced a low blood glucose reaction overnight. The intensity, duration, and timing of exercise can all affect the risk for going low.
How is type 2 diabetes diagnosed?
Diagnosis – Type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed using the glycated hemoglobin (A1C) test. This blood test indicates your average blood sugar level for the past two to three months. Results are interpreted as follows:
Below 5.7% is normal.5.7% to 6.4% is diagnosed as prediabetes.6.5% or higher on two separate tests indicates diabetes.
If the A1C test isn’t available, or if you have certain conditions that interfere with an A1C test, your doctor may use the following tests to diagnose diabetes: Random blood sugar test. Blood sugar values are expressed in milligrams of sugar per deciliter (mg/dL) or millimoles of sugar per liter (mmol/L) of blood.
Less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L ) is normal.100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L ) is diagnosed as prediabetes.126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L ) or higher on two separate tests is diagnosed as diabetes.
Oral glucose tolerance test. This test is less commonly used than the others, except during pregnancy. You’ll need to fast overnight and then drink a sugary liquid at the doctor’s office. Blood sugar levels are tested periodically for the next two hours. Results are interpreted as follows:
Less than 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L ) is normal.140 to 199 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L and 11.0 mmol/L ) is diagnosed as prediabetes.200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L ) or higher after two hours suggests diabetes.
Screening. The American Diabetes Association recommends routine screening with diagnostic tests for type 2 diabetes in all adults age 35 or older and in the following groups:
People younger than 35 who are overweight or obese and have one or more risk factors associated with diabetes Women who have had gestational diabetes People who have been diagnosed with prediabetes Children who are overweight or obese and who have a family history of type 2 diabetes or other risk factors