What Is Type 2 Diabetes? Its Causes, Symptoms, Treatment & Diet

What is Type 2 Diabetes? Its Causes, Symptoms, Treatment & Diet

A tough life-long disease, Diabetes is something that affects the body’s functioning. It affects body’s glucose and blood sugar levels. Although diabetes has different types, the primarily seen ones are Type 1, Type 2 and Gestational.
We here would be looking into the Type 2 Diabetes in brief and shall seek answers for the same. Join in as we dig deep into ‘Type 2 Diabetes and its Causes, Symptoms, Treatment and Diet’.
Let’s start off then.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
On a general note, our body’s pancreas is stimulated to produce insulin for the body. The insulin helps change the glucose obtained from the food into energy for the body. However, in the Type 2 Diabetes, the pancreas still produces the insulin but the body doesn’t use it as required upon. Also known by as insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes is seen commonly among the diabetic patients, the stats revealing at 85% of all diabetic patients.
The Root Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes is caused as a result of combination of different things like DNA, obesity, metabolic syndrome, broken beta cells and more. More so over, childhood obesity is one of the grave reasons for diabetes later in the adult age.
The disease is also seen in people with high blood pressure, high level of cholesterol, extra fat layers around the body and waist. For many, the high glucose production from liver also affects the way diabetes is contracted upon.
The Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes
There are different risk factors associated with Type 2 Diabetes. A few major things that affect highly in Type 2 Diabetes are-
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How to Lower Your A1C Levels: More Steps You Can Take

You may be familiar with the “ABCs” of diabetes: A1C, blood pressure, and cholesterol. This acronym is part of a larger diabetes campaign called “Know Your Numbers,” and hopefully you’re aware of all of your numbers — what they are, what they should be, and how often to get them checked. Obviously, knowing your A1C and knowing what you can do if it’s not at goal is a big part of diabetes management.
The focus last week and this week has been on all things A1C: what it is, what the general goal is, why it matters, and ways to get it to where it needs to be.
What else does it take to lower your A1C?
Figuring out how to lower your A1C to whatever your personal goal is can sometimes seem like solving a puzzle. You try something and it may or may not help, or it helps but not enough. Then you try something else. Yes, it can be frustrating, but eventually you’ll hit on a strategy that works for you. Last week, we looked at how a healthy eating plan (including keeping carbs consistent and sticking to an eating schedule) and a physical activity program can help. Research shows that an eating plan can lower A1C levels by 1–2%; physical activity can lower A1C by 0.6–1%, according to various studies. But what if these two strategies aren’t enough? Then what?
Time for medication?
Diabetes medicines generally lower A1C levels anywhere from 0.5% to as much as 3.5%. The A1C-lowering effect of medicines can vary from person to person, however, and the effect is often dependent upon how high the A1C is to begin with.
Insulin. We know that people who have Type 1 diabete Continue reading

Diabetes Glossary

Antibodies
Antibodies are specialized proteins that are part of the immune system. They are created when an antigen (such as a virus or bacteria) is detected in the body. The antibodies bond with the specific antigen that triggered their production, and that action neutralizes the antigen, which is a threat to the body. Antibodies are created to fight off whatever has invaded the body. See also autoantibodies.
Antigens
An antigen is a foreign substance (such as a virus or bacteria) that invades the body. When the body detects it, it produces specific antibodies to fight off the antigen.
Autoantibodies
Autoantibodies are a group of antibodies that “go bad” and mistakenly attack and damage the body’s tissues and organs. In the case of type 1 diabetes, autoantibodies attack the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas.
Autoimmune disorder
If you have an autoimmune disorder (also called an autoimmune disease), your body’s immune system turns against itself and starts to attack its own tissues.
Basal secretion (basal insulin)
We all should have a small amount of insulin that’s constantly present in the blood; that is the basal secretion. People with type 1 diabetes must take a form of insulin that replicates the basal secretion throughout the day; that’s basal insulin.
Beta cells
Beta cells are located in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. They are responsible for making insulin.
Blood glucose level
The blood glucose level is how much glucose is in your blood at a given time. This level is very important for people with diabetes, and they must monitor thei Continue reading

Diabetes: a lost childhood

On the day five years ago when my daughter Izzi, then aged 10, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, her seven-year-old brother Rowan was reluctant to visit her in the hospital. "Is she going to die?" he asked gravely. It was hard to reassure him through my tears, as I had only the vaguest idea of what type 1 diabetes was. I now know that, without insulin, which she will need to inject multiple times every day for the rest of her life, the answer would almost certainly have been yes.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition in which insulin-producing cells in the pancreas just give up. No one knows why, and there is no cure. Izzi did nothing to cause this to happen and we have no family history of the condition, so, for us, there is no genetic link. She was just unlucky, like the 400,000 other people in the UK who have it. The condition is a life sentence: every organ in her body is under constant attack and the only defence is to pump herself full of insulin.
We only realised something was wrong when Izzi started to drink large quantities of water. At first I was pleased: I had always thought she didn't drink enough. But when one day she forgot to take her water bottle to school and went into a massive panic, I began to suspect there was a problem. We later learned that the need to drink lots was a result of her body's attempt to flush out the excess sugar in her blood. Insulin is the hormone that acts as a key to unlock pathways between the blood and the body's cells, which need the sugar for energy. Without insulin, the concentration of sugar in the blood can build up to Continue reading

Statin induced diabetes and its clinical implications

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INTRODUCTION
“Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene and animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they do not heal, but only relieve suffering temporarily, exchanging one disease for another”.
Statins are one of the most widely prescribed groups of drugs in the world. Although statins have been shown to be beneficial in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a number of trials, current reports of increased risk of type 2 diabetes with statin use are of concern. As a result of these reports, on February 28, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration added new safety label changes for the statin class of cholesterol-lowering drugs regarding the potential for increased hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and fasting plasma glucose. The present review discusses the evidence available from clinical trials and meta-analyses regarding possible diabetogenic effect of statins, probable mechanisms of this association and how these new observations might change clinical approach to statin use. Continue reading