The Diabetes Lifestyle - Maintaining the Quality of Life
Type 2 Diabetes is a growing problem rapidly reaching epidemic proportions
Type 2 diabetes is also known as Adult Onset Diabetes because it mainly affects people later in life. Like type 1 the sufferer has a tendency to have elevated blood sugar levels. Type 2 is a huge and growing problem made worse by increasing levels of obesity which increases vulnerability to it.
Unlike type 1 the type 2 diabetic normally produces sufficient insulin but the body builds up a resistance and prevents it being effective.
The side effects of type 2 are mostly identical to type 1 with the high blood sugar levels causing damage to the eyes, liver, kidneys and heart. They also harm the nerves (diabetic neuropathy) and cause restriction in the blood circulation (this is known as vascular disease).
About 8% of the population have diabetes with roughly 90-95% of these being type 2 making it the most common by far.
The disease is progressive and the treatments currently used can only delay but not prevent the worsening of symptoms. There is little will in the pharmaceutical industry to find cures because a cured diabetic is no longer a lifetime customer.