What Is Type 2 Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that's characterized by high blood sugar, which doctors refer to as hyperglycemia.

What makes type 2 diabetes different from type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and other types of diabetes is the underlying cause of high blood sugar.

In type 2 diabetes, the two main contributors to high blood sugar are insulin resistance and reduced production of insulin by the pancreas.

Prevalence of Diabetes

• More than 29 million people in the United States - almost 10 percent of the total population - have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• The vast majority of those people (90 to 95 percent) have type 2 diabetes.
• About 8.1 million people with diabetes are undiagnosed.
• Diabetes is now the seventh leading cause of death among Americans, according to the CDC.
• If current trends continue, one of every three adults in the United States will have some form of diabetes by 2050.
• The CDC also estimates there were 1.7 million newly diagnosed cases of diabetes among people aged 20 and older in the United States in 2012 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).
• Worldwide, about 347 million people currently have diabetes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And children, who were rarely diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the past, now account for a growing proportion of those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

EVERYDAY SOLUTIONS

Healthy Living With Type 2 Diabetes

Learn more.

Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance is a state in which the body’s cells do not use insulin efficiently. As a result, it takes more insulin than normal to transport glucose (the main type of sugar found in the bloodstream) into cells, where it can be used for fuel or stored for later use.

It’s not entirely clear why some people develop insulin resistance and others don’t. Obesity, which is the main risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, is known to increase insulin resistance.

But not all people with type 2 diabetes are obese — and not all obese people develop the condition — so other issues such as genetics are contributing factors as well.