Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a form of diabetes mellitus characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance and a relative, rather than absolute, lack of insulin. It primarily occurs as a result of obesity and physical inactivity, on a background of genetic predisposition, and its common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue and unexplained weight loss. It is diagnosed by blood tests such as fasting plasma glucose, an oral glucose tolerance test, or glycated hemoglobin (A1c), and managed through lifestyle change, control of other cardiovascular risk factors, and maintaining blood glucose within a normal range. British physician Harold Himsworth first distinguished it from what is now called type 1 diabetes in a 1936 paper describing insulin-sensitive and insulin-insensitive forms of the disease.