What is Type 2 Diabetes - Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

Diabetes is a serious condition characterized by having too much sugar in your blood. Metformin pills taken to treat Diabetes.

When you eat, food is converted into glucose (a form of sugar) and sent out into the bloodstream as fuel for cells throughout your body.
In a healthy person, the pancreas produces a hormone called insulin which steps in to control fluctuating blood sugar levels after and in-between meals.
Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease which causes your pancreas to produce insufficient insulin and the cells around your body to be less reactive to insulin.
It is caused by a build up of fat in the liver — the chief role of which is to filter the blood — and the pancreas.
When you eat too much food, the excess sugar in your blood is converted to fat, which is stored around the body, including your organs, ultimately impeding their ability to work.
Normally, your liver will produce just the right amount of glucose that your body needs. But when it contains excess fat, it produces too much glucose and also passes fat to the pancreas. This excess fat then attacks the pancreas’s insulin-producing cells, leading them to malfunction. The result is type 2 diabetes.

Common signs of diabetes include increased thirst, passing water more often, especially at night, extreme tiredness or blurred vision. If you are concerned, speak to your GP or practice nurse.
If you have already been warned by your GP that your blood sugar levels are high or in the ‘pre-diabetes’ range, this plan will certainly help you avoid full-blown type 2 diabetes.
Your risk of type 2 diabetes is increased if you know you are overweight. This plan will help reduce your risk.
If you have a close family member (parents, siblings, grandparents) with type 2 diabetes, you are considered to be a risk of the disease. Your risk may be elevated if you had gestational diabetes when pregnant or if you are of Asian or Far Eastern descent.
Your GP surgery might be willing to perform a (free) blood test to screen for diabetes, or you can drop into a Lloyds pharmacy for a swift check (£5, no appointment necessary). Aim to attend in the morning before eating breakfast, for a more accurate result.
If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes talk to your GP or practice nurse and discuss this plan (your medication levels will probably need to be reduced, under supervision, as you lose weight).
This approach is only suitable in type 2 diabetes, and not type 1 or other forms of diabetes.