Diabetes is a chronic condition in which there is too much sugar (glucose) in the blood. Keeping the sugar level normal in the blood needs the right amount of a hormone called insulin. Insulin gets the sugar out of the blood and into the body’s muscles where it is used to provide energy for the body. If there is not enough insulin or if the insulin does not do its job properly, diabetes develops.

In general, children and young adults develop diabetes because they cannot make enough insulin (type 1 diabetes). People over the age of 40 usually develop diabetes because their insulin does not work properly (type 2 diabetes). At first the body struggles to make extra insulin because what is there is not working properly, but later these people also develop a shortage of insulin. The aim of treatment for people with type 2 diabetes is to help them make the best use of the insulin they have and to try to make it last as long as possible.

Diabetes is on its way to becoming one of the most common health problems in the world. Currently, in many developing and newly industrialised nations, there is an epidemic of diabetes. Already in some countries half of the adult population has diabetes. In Australia it is the seventh leading cause of death. It is very common in Australia’s Aboriginal people in whom up to one in four has diabetes.

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