Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for about ninety-five percent of all diabetes cases and affects in excess of fifty million Americans, is largely seen in adults over the age of forty. Today, however, it is also being diagnosed increasingly at younger ages, and is even being diagnosed in quite young children.

Type 2 diabetes symptoms are frequently reasonably mild in the early stages of the condition and you can be suffering from type 2 diabetes for very long periods of time before it is diagnosed. However, diabetes is a potentially very serious condition and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes can result in a number of serious complications including renal failure, blindness, wounds which will not heal and coronary artery disease.

Figures suggest that approximately 1 in 5 adults over 65 in the USA is suffering from type 2 diabetes. The condition is more prominent amongst, Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites and is somewhat more common in older women than men.

The origin of type 2 diabetes is a mystery and, while it is thought that there is a genetic component to the disease there is far less evidence for this than is found in the case of type 1 diabetes. There is however clear evidence that environmental factors play a significant role in the development of type 2 diabetes and this is especially true in the case of obesity, insufficient exercise and a sedentary lifestyle.

Many people believe that type 1 and type 2 diabetes are identical and that the difference lies just in the name, with type 1 diabetes referring to the disease in children and type 2 diabetes referring to the disease in adults. This in not however so and, while there are some similarities, type 1 and type 2 diabetes are quite different conditions and require quite different treatment.

With type 1 diabetes the body cannot produce insulin, which is needed for the transfer of glucose (the body's principle source of energy) from the blood into the cells of the body. With type 2 diabetes the problem is not that the body cannot produce insulin but that the body develops a resistance to insulin.

Currently there is no cure for type 2 diabetes which is a chronic condition and treatment is therefore aimed at managing the condition in order to lower the rate of complications many of which can be life-threatening. Additionally, treatment is aimed at maintaining a good quality of life for the sufferer.

At first, patients with type 2 diabetes are treated using a very carefully designed program of diet and exercise (which includes a weight loss program where this is necessary) and this can prove to be extremely effective in controlling glucose levels within the blood and can generally improve a patient's sensitivity to insulin markedly. When this treatment does not prove to be successful, or in cases where the condition progresses, type 2 diabetes is generally treated using a variety of medication.