Unfortunately, diabetes is extremely common. Approximately 1 in 10 people aged 20 and over throughout the world have diabetes. This is an average with numbers varying by age, country, ethnic origin or ancestry, weight, weight distribution, socioeconomic status, and medical history. In Canada the number is 1 in 10 adults, and 1 in 5 over 65. Notably, these rates have been rising and have doubled from 1 in 20 adults to 1 in 10 adults over the last 30 years. These statistics apply to type 2 diabetes; type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5-10% of all people with diabetes, affecting between 1 in 100 to 1 in 200 adults in Canada.
So why does diabetes develop? Unfortunately, we do not have a simple answer. The best answer is that diabetes emerges from interactions between an individual’s composition or make-up (including their genetics, their parents, their development, and other unknowns) and their environment (including geography, economics, availability of types of food, opportunities for physical activity, daily routines, and other unknowns). There is no one thing that causes diabetes just as there is no one thing that causes a weather system.
Regardless of the “why”, the information in the first blog in this series illustrates the “how” of diabetes. In people without diabetes, glucose levels are kept from rising by insulin that comes from the pancreas. Diabetes develops when your pancreas is unable to make enough insulin to keep your glucose levels in the normal range.
The next blog discusses the symptoms of a high glucose level and when to suspect and screen for the possibility of diabetes.
About the author
Hertzel Gerstein
Hertzel is an endocrinologist and professor at McMaster University who is in high demand as a speaker, advocate, and educator on diabetes-related topics. His research focuses on using large, international randomized trials to identify and test new ways of preventing type 2 diabetes, reducing serious health outcomes like strokes and death, and achieving type 2 diabetes remissions.
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Diabetes Basics Part 3: How is Glucose Measured?
Diabetes is diagnosed when the level in the blood is persistently higher than the thresholds described in the last blog. So how is the glucose level measured? First, the glucose level at a point in time can be measured in a standard blood sample, in which the amount of glucose is detected by another chemical...
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Diabetes Basics Part 2: The Definition of Diabetes
The first piece in this blog series describes how someone without diabetes maintains glucose levels within the tight normal range of 4 to 8 mmol/L. Persistently higher glucose levels mean the beta cells of the pancreas can’t make enough insulin to keep glucose from rising. A diagnosis of diabetes is made when the glucose level...
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Diabetes Basics Part 1: What is Glucose?
Glucose is a simple sugar molecule or carbohydrate that is present in many foods. It exists as either single glucose molecules or in combination with other molecules. Like other animals, humans use glucose as a form of energy. Glucose molecules circulate through the body and provide the energy that the brain, muscles, fat and other...