Type 2 diabetes

Obesity is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. In this disease, body cells become less responsive to insulin. Insulin normally helps cells take glucose from the blood, so reduced responsiveness makes blood glucose harder to control.

Type 2 diabetes begins when body cells stop responding normally to insulin. This reduced response is called insulin resistance. Because less glucose is removed from the blood in response to a given amount of insulin, blood glucose concentration tends to rise.

In type 2 diabetes, the body still makes insulin, particularly at first, but its cells do not respond to it well enough. This is called insulin resistance. The pancreas may later be unable to make enough insulin to overcome that reduced response.

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes therefore produce the same central problem, but they arise in different ways.