Diabetes is a serious and increasingly common disease in which the body does not properly control the amount of sugar (glucose) in the blood, and thus the level of sugar is too high.

There are two types of diabetes. In Type I, also called juvenile onset or insulin-dependent diabetes, the body does not produce enough insulin. This type usually appears in children and young adults. It is relatively uncommon, accounting for less than ten percent of all cases of diabetes.

Type II diabetes, also known as adult-onset diabetes and non-insulin dependent diabetes, is characterized by an insensitivity of the tissues of the body to insulin secreted by the pancreas (insulin resistance).

Early symptoms of diabetes include extreme thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, increased tiredness, unusual weight loss and blurry vision. Diabetes can eventually lead to severe health problems, including heart disease, blindness, impotence, amputations and kidney failure.

The main causes of Type II diabetes are apparently changes in lifestyle, particularly decreases in the quality of food intake, lack of exercise and obesity. However, the exact mechanism that leads to diabetes is not yet known.

Diabetes can be considered an epidemic, and an extremely serious one. Its incidences has been increasing rapidly, particularly in the developing countries and among lower income populations in the developed countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 171 million people worldwide had diabetes as of 2006, and this figure could double in two decades.

Diabetes ranks among the top ten diseases in terms of severity and incidence in the developed countries. Whereas the the incidence and mortality of heart disease, cancer and other major diseases has been relatively constant or declining, the incidence of diabetes has been increasingly swiftly during the past several decades. There are now more than 20 million people with diabetes in the U.S. alone, of which more than five million are not aware that they have it. Moreover, there are more than 40 million people in the U.S. who could be considered prediabetic, which means that they could become diabetic in a few years.

Although a great deal of research is being devoted to studying diabetes, no general cures have been developed. Fortunately, as is the case with many other diseases, Type II diabetes can be avoided in most cases by adopting a healthy lifestyle¹.

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¹For basic information on how to avoid diabetes, see the hahi article How to Avoid Getting Diabetes.

Created October 23, 2006.
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