When your doctor uttered the words "You have type 2 diabetes," you were inducted into a fast-growing, nonexclusive club -- a club no one wants to join. About 90 percent of all people with diabetes in the United States have type 2 diabetes. That adds up to more than 16 million Americans, or enough people to populate New York City -- twice.

Like type 1 diabetes, this condition used to go by other names, including non-insulin-dependent diabetes and adult-onset diabetes. How times change. Now it's clear that both of those terms are misnomers. Nearly one-third of people with type 2 diabetes require insulin injections, so a person with type 2 diabetes may indeed be insulin dependent. And type 2 isn't limited to adults, either. While most people who develop type 2 diabetes are over 35, more and more kids are turning up in doctors' offices with classic cases of type 2 diabetes, largely because more and more kids today are obese. As you read on, you'll learn why lugging around extra weight increases the risk for type 2 diabetes.

©2007 Publication International, Ltd. Obesity is a factor in the development of type 2 diabetes.

Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes is not an autoimmune disease. It typically begins with a phenomenon called insulin resistance, when cells throughout your body start to ignore insulin. The hormone comes knocking, but the doormen have trouble letting it in. The insulin may not be able to open the cell door, or it may require reinforcements in the form of extra-large gushes of insulin before the cells will open up. In either case, glucose builds up in the blood.

Insulin resistance causes no symptoms. It's not as though you can feel or hear glucose molecules crashing into your resistant, tightly closed cells. However, insulin resistance often sets the stage for type 2 diabetes. Bottom line: If you have type 2 diabetes, you almost certainly have insulin resistance.

It usually takes insulin resistance months or years to progress to type 2 diabetes, when beta cells become progressively incapable of meeting the demand for insulin. At that point, insulin levels in the blood rise, too, as the beta cells keep cranking out the hormone in an attempt to coax open stubborn cells.

People often dismiss the signs and symptoms or blame them on some other health problem. A few indicators of type 2 diabetes overlap with those experienced by type 1 patients, including

• constant thirst
  
  
• frequent need to urinate
  
  
• increased hunger
  
  
• fatigue

However, type 2 diabetes often produces additional symptoms, such as

• cuts that take a long time to heal
  
  
• frequent infections (women often develop vaginitis, for example)
  
  
•  blurry eyesight
  
  
• tingling or numbness in the hands and feet
  
  
• erectile dysfunction

In all likelihood, your body began to experience insulin resistance long before you were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, especially if you have any of the latter five symptoms. Excess glucose in the blood interferes with white blood cells, which explains why cuts and sores take longer to heal. Meanwhile, germs snack on glucose, which makes them stronger, promoting more infections. Long-term exposure to glucose damages nerves, too, which can explain many other symptoms of type 2 diabetes.

While you may be able to live with these problems (some more readily than others), they should serve as a loud, clear warning that your out-of-control blood sugar is slowly trashing your body like a rowdy rock band wrecks a hotel room. Left untreated, type 2 diabetes -- or any type of diabetes, for that matter -- can lead to medical catastrophe.

Now you might be asking yourself, "Well, what causes insulin resistance?" Stay tuned! We will begin to answer that question on the next page.

For more valuable information on Type 2 diabetes, try the following links:

• To learn more about diabetes in general, including diagnosis, causes, symptoms, and treatment, visit our main Diabetes page
• Our main Type 2 Diabetes page gives a thorough overview of this most common form of diabetes.
  
• Learn the diverse signs of type 2 diabetes, from increased thirst and hunger to frequent infections and blurred vision, in Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes.
• For a variety of treatment options, read Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes.

This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Consumer Guide (R), Publications International, Ltd., the author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.