What Is the Most Common Type of Diabetes Worldwide?

What is the most common type of diabetes worldwide? The most common type is Type 2. Let’s have a thorough look at diabetes and its prevalence around the globe.

Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes worldwide. Of all the people around the world with diabetes, 90 percent have Type 2.

Here are the different types of diabetes:

• Type 1 Diabetes is caused when the pancreas does not make enough insulin. This type of diabetes usually develops during childhood or adolescence.  
• Type 2 Diabetes happens when either the pancreas is not making enough insulin or the body has grown resistant to it and the cells can’t use the glucose. Type 2 diabetes can develop at any time, from childhood to adulthood.
• Gestational Diabetes occurs when a woman is pregnant. This is caused from certain hormones that are present during this time. Usually a woman’s blood sugar levels return to normal after birth.

Causes and Symptoms of Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a group of diseases that refer to the blood sugar levels in your body. Glucose is the fuel that cells need to function. When we eat, the pancreas sends insulin into the blood to enable the cells to use the glucose. If either the pancreas does not make enough insulin or the body grows resistant to its effects, then there will be too much sugar in the blood and diabetes develops.

Symptoms of all types of diabetes include an unusual amount of hunger or thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, sores that heal slowly, recurring infections, and numbness or tingling of the extremities.

Risk Factors for Diabetes

The common risk factors for getting diabetes include: 

• Diet: Overeating and eating the wrong kinds of food can lead to diabetes.
• Heredity: You can be genetically predisposed to diabetes.
• Being overweight: Too much fat in your body can make the cells resistant to the insulin.  
• Age: The chance of getting diabetes increases as you get older.
• Virus: If a virus damages your pancreas, insulin production may be affected.  
• Stress: Stress affects a lot of things, including diabetes. It can change the glucose levels and affect your metabolism.
• Smoking: If you smoke, you are more likely to get diabetes.

As more and more people become overweight, the prevalance of Type 2 diabetes increases. Type 2 is also the most common type of diabetes because it is most affected by people's behavior.

How Common Is Diabetes

• More than 220 million people have diabetes worldwide.
• 80 percent of deaths due to diabetes happen in low to middle income countries.  
• The World Health Organization predicts that diabetes-related deaths will double between 2005 and 2030. 
• Diabetes causes 5 percent of all deaths yearly.