Type 2 diabetes is a serious and huge issue in New Zealand. Type 2 diabetes is an issue because of the increase in numbers of people who are diagnosed with the disease. Over 240,000 have and 100,000 do not yet know they have diabetes as they haven’t been diagnosed yet. Maori and Pacific islanders are the highest ethnic groups to be at risk of obtaining type 2 diabetes, they are three times more liking to get the disease. New Zealand has one of the top rates of obesity, coming …show more content…
Type 2 diabetes is when people have problems regulating their blood sugar. People with diabetes have high blood sugar because either their bodies can not produce enough insulin or they are not responsive to insulin. Some of the glucose that remains in the blood stream is absorbed by the cells lining the blood vessels. These cells swell up, the blood vessels then become leaky and may become blocked. Diabetics has a high risk of plaques forming that may block blood vessels. Diabetes causes major damage to small blood vessels which results to other diseases. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas which regulates the amount of glucose in the blood, and the lack of insulin causes type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is the result of the body not creating enough insulin to keep blood glucose levels in the normal. For type 2 diabetes the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or your cells do not recognise the insulin that is there. Diabetes happens when either the pancreas produces very little insulin or the body does not respond appropriately to insulin, a condition called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when the body produces insulin but does not use it effectively. When people have insulin resistance glucose builds up in the blood instead of being absorbed by the cells which leads to type 2