Type 2 Diabetes

(70 KB)

The Issue

Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases in Canada with more than 60,000 new cases yearly. Nine out of ten people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. The good news is that type 2 diabetes can be prevented or postponed by making healthy lifestyle choices.

Background

Diabetes is a lifelong condition where either your body does not produce enough insulin, or the body cannot use the insulin it produces. The body needs insulin in order to change the sugar from food into energy. If your body does not have insulin or cannot use it properly, the result is a high blood sugar (glucose) level. There are three main types of diabetes:

• Type 1, where the body makes little or no insulin.
• Type 2, where the body makes insulin but cannot use it properly.
• Gestational diabetes, where the body does not properly use insulin during pregnancy. This type of diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born.

At the present, type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, and people living with type 1 diabetes depend on insulin to stay alive.

It is estimated that close to two million Canadian adults have diabetes. One third of these people are unaware that they have the disease. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death