Type 2 Diabetes (Non-insulin Dependent
Diabetes)
This used to be called non-insulin dependent
diabetes or mature-age onset diabetes. It is by far the most common form,
affecting 85-90% of all people with diabetes. While it usually affects mature
adults, more and more younger people, even children, are getting Type 2
diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease and is
strongly associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the classic
‘apple shape’ body where there is extra weight around the waist.
Unlike those with Type 1, people with Type 2
diabetes are always insulin resistant. This means that their pancreas is making
insulin but the insulin is not working as well as it should, so it must make
more. Eventually it can’t make enough to keep the glucose balance right.
Adopting a healthy lifestyle may delay the
need for tablets and/or insulin. However it is important to know that when you
do need tablets and/or insulin, this is just the natural progress of the
disease. By taking tablets and/or insulin as soon as they are needed,
complications caused by diabetes can be reduced.
Who is most likely to get Type 2 diabetes?
While there is no single cause for developing
Type 2 diabetes, there are well-known risk factors. Some of these can be changed
and some cannot.
Risk factors which cannot be changed:
People who are most likely to get Type 2
diabetes often have these risk factors:
- · A family history of diabetes.
· Age – the risk increases as we get older.
· Are Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders.
· Are from ethnic backgrounds more likely to have Type 2 diabetes such as
Melanesian, Polynesian, Chinese or people from the Indian sub-continent.
· Women who have:
·given birth to a child over 4.5kgs (9lbs) or had gestational diabetes when
pregnant.
·a condition known as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
Risk factors which can be changed
- · Lifestyle
· Weight
· level of physical activity
· Blood pressure
· the type of food we eat
· Cholesterol
· Smoking
Can Type 2 diabetes be prevented?
Yes. People at risk of Type 2 diabetes can
delay and even prevent getting it by following a healthy lifestyle. This
includes regular physical activity, making healthy food choices and not putting
on a lot of weight, especially if they have been told that they have a
pre-diabetic condition.
What are the pre-diabetic conditions linked
to Type 2 diabetes?
There are three common conditions linked to
developing Type 2 diabetes:
- Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG),
- Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), and
- diabetes during pregnancy, called Gestational
Diabetes.
1 Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG). This
condition is diagnosed when the fasting* blood glucose level (usually blood is
taken from the arm) is higher than normal but after a sweet drink (Oral Glucose
Tolerance Test) the level is not high enough to be called Impaired Glucose
Tolerance or diabetes.
2 Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT). This condition is diagnosed when the
fasting* blood glucose level is higher than normal, even higher after the Oral
Glucose Tolerance Test but still not high enough to be called diabetes.
Who is most likely to get Impaired Fasting
Glucose or Impaired Glucose Tolerance?
These two pre-diabetic conditions are most
common in people who have a family history of Type 2 diabetes, are inactive and
overweight. People who carry excess weight around the waistline are at the
greatest risk. Like Type 2 diabetes, Impaired Fasting Glucose and Impaired
Glucose Tolerance are a result of insulin not working as well as it should
because of insulin resistance.
* ‘Fasting’ means having nothing to eat or
drink for eight hours before the test is done.
3 Gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes
occurs during pregnancy and usually goes away after the baby is born. In
pregnancy, the placenta makes hormones that help the baby to grow and develop.
Gestational diabetes occurs because these hormones also block the action of the
mother’s insulin. This is called insulin resistance.
The pregnant woman needs extra insulin so the
glucose can get from the blood into the cells where it is used for energy. When
a woman is pregnant, she needs 2 or 3 times more insulin than normal. If the
body is unable to produce this much insulin, diabetes develops. When the
pregnancy is over and the woman’s insulin needs return to normal, the diabetes
usually goes away.
Who is most likely to get gestational
diabetes?
From 3 to 8 % of all pregnant women will
develop gestational diabetes around her 24th to 28th week of pregnancy. Those
most at risk include women over 30, who have a family history of Type 2 diabetes
and are overweight. Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders are at increased risk
as are certain ethnic groups including Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Middle
Eastern and Polynesian/Melanesian.
Gestational diabetes is diagnosed with a
non-fasting Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT).
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