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Type 2 Diabetes: Don't Ignore The Facts

By: Chonticha Marijne Millions of people around the world are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year. Many have never heard of the disease, though some know a few facts. If you're one of millions diagnosed with type 2 diabetes this year, arm yourself with knowledge that will help make your diabetes treatment and management easier.

Type 2 diabetes is caused when your body is unable to produce sufficient quantities of insulin or the inability of your own body cells to use that insulin efficiently. The body needs sugars, or glucose, for energy. The human body is a finely tuned machine with different systems and organs working in tandem to maintain normal activities. Much like a vehicle, if one setting is wrong, it affects the behavior of the entire engine. Hormones within the body normally produce adequate supplies of insulin, which is turned into glucose and used as an energy source. When the body is unable to produce enough insulin or use it properly, this affects fat tissues and muscle cells, which in turn causes what is known as 'insulin resistance'. Such a condition is prevalent among those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is also known as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), or adult onset diabetes mellitus (AODM). With type 2 diabetes, a decline of what are called beta cells adds to the problem by also serving to elevate blood sugar levels within the body. The bottom line is that if someone is resistant to insulin, the body turns around and tries to increase its production of the substance until it overcomes the resistance. Eventually, if the production of insulin is decreased and insulin is not released at regular intervals, hyperglycemia occurs. This condition causes the elevated blood glucose levels within your body systems to rise. As with many other body system organs and functions, levels of glucose must be strictly maintained to produce normal body function activities.

People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may still be able to produce insulin, but not enough to maintain continuing normal range levels within the system. In such cases, the pancreas kicks in to start producing larger quantities of insulin, which throws the fine chemical balances maintained throughout the body out of whack. Another major factor in the onset of type 2 diabetes is that body cells, especially muscle and fat cells, seem insensitive to this insulin. This may be due to the fact that the insulin being released from the pancreas is inferior, but what results is a downward spiral that is difficult to control until a patient is required to administer daily insulin injections.

It used to be that only older people or certain ethnic groups seemed to develop type 2 diabetes, but more young people are contracting type 2 diabetes than at any other time throughout history. Such a rise in the number of young adults, and even teenagers, developing type 2 diabetes, is blamed on sloppy eating habits, lack of adequate exercise and the intake of huge amounts of fast foods. If this issue isn't seriously addressed, the rise in people developing type 2 diabetes will continue at an alarming rate.