Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes mellitus or Non Insulin Dependant Diabetes (NIDDM) is one of the most prevalent diseases in western societies. Blood levels of glucose are also higher than normal like in Type 1 diabetes, however in this case this isn’t a result of insulin deficiency but rather a result of insulin resistance. What does this means? It simply means that the body (pancreatic islet cells) produce insulin however the body cells don’t respond to it in order to absorb blood glucose. This forces the pancreas to produce more and more insulin, so it isn’t uncommon for type 2 diabetics to have blood insulin levels higher than normal. The overproduction of insulin by the pancreatic islet cells may cause the pancreas eventually to get “exchausted” and stop producing enough insulin. Therefore, we can say that in Type 2 Diabetes the body either doesn’t respond to insulin or it doesn’t produce enough insulin.

In the past Type 2 Diabetes was considered a disease of the elderly, however now mainly because of the change of lifestyle and eating behavior we are seeing that younger and younger people are affected by this condition and the the prevalence is rising among adolescents.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease of complex etiology. Risk factors include both genetic and environmental factors. Some of the risks factors for Type 2 Diabetes include age, ethnicity, family history of diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity, high fat diet.

One of the biggest dangers of having Type 2 Diabetes is that it may remain undiagnosed for a long period (and therefore untreated) since the symptoms are quite common. The main diabetes symptoms include excessive thirst, frequent urination, increased apettite, fatigue and blurred vision.

The treatment of Type 2 Diabetes includes three parameters, mediacation, diet and physical activity. In this blog I am going to discuss mainly the diet part since this is my field of expertise, however there will also be mentions of the other two very important factors for the treatment of Diabetes.