Diabetes
Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes your blood sugar level to become too high. There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition where your body struggles to regulate the level of sugar (glucose) in your blood.
Diabetes can be a serious condition if not managed, but small changes can make a big difference to help you live a healthy life, like walking and changing the way you eat.
Type 2 diabetes is when your body can't make enough insulin, or the insulin you make doesn't work very well.
Type 1 diabetes is when your body attacks the cells that make insulin. This page focuses on type 2 diabetes.
Know your risk of developing type 2 diabetes
Some factors increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes such as:
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- If you are white with a BMI over 30
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- If you are South Asian, Chinese Black Caribbean or Black Caribbean with a BMI over 27.5
Age
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- If you are 40 or older
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- 25 years old and above for Black Caribbean and Black African, South Asian, Chinese
If someone in your family has type 2 diabetes
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- You are 6 times more likely to develop diabetes
- If you have high blood pressure
Poverty
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- Type 2 diabetes is 60% more common in low-income communities living in England.
Ethnicity
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- South Asian people in the UK are 6 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than the white population.
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- African and African-Caribbean people in the UK are 3 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than the white population.
How can I prevent type 2 diabetes?
You can lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by:
- Doing more exercise
- Losing weight if you are advised by a medical professional to do so
Get support to prevent diabetes
- Diabetes UK helpline - diabetes information and advice.
- NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme
What are the symptoms of diabetes?
- Needing to wee more often, especially at night
- Being really thirsty
- Being more tired than usual
- Losing weight without meaning to
- Thrush
- Cuts taking longer to heal
- Blurry vision
- Being more hungry than normal
Get support for people living with diabetes
- Diabetes UK helpline - diabetes information and advice.
- NHS Oviva Type 2 Diabetes Remission Pathway - 12 month programme aiming to put your diabetes into remission.
- Speak to a Health & Wellbeing Coach at your GP practice
- NELFT Diabetes Nursing Service
Related Services
NELFT Diabetes Nursing Service
Supports people over 18 years old with diabetes, newly diagnosed or have existing type one or two diabetes, frequent hospital admissions: for example, diabetes ketoacidosis, recurrent hypoglycaemia and or insulin initiation/insulin dose adjustment.
Diabetes UK Helpline
Get specialist information and advice on all aspects of living with diabetes. Call us for answers, support or just to talk to someone who knows about diabetes.
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