Diabetes is a health issue with an increasing rate of diagnosed cases in many communities in the United States. Type II occurs when the pancreas can’t produce enough insulin and lack the ability to take in insulin. It leads to a higher reading of glucose levels, which increases the risk of metabolic complications throughout one’s life (NDEP-“The Diabetes Epidemic”, n.d.).
Epidemiology
While diabetes most prominently affects the Hispanic/Latino community, it is only in the recent decades that the diagnosed and undiagnosed cases, risk factors, and effects of the disease have increased for all populations. The most recently available data from 2014 states that there are over 29 million people in the United States who are living …show more content…
Insulin resistance occurs when “the body produces insulin but doesn’t use it effectively” (Bray, 2014). When an adult’s liver and muscle cells can’t effectively use insulin, type II diabetes develops. The pancreas creates insulin to circulate in the bloodstream, and then sugar is allowed to enter the cells of the body, while insulin combats the sugar and lowers the amount present in the bloodstream. When the sugar levels are lowered, the pancreases ceases producing insulin. When an adult has type II diabetes, the process of insulin circulation doesn’t work properly, which affects the pancreas, and kidneys, because the immune system and cells are impaired (Getaneh, 2008). However, there are other contributing factors that lead to this disease. Genetic susceptibility plays a role in diagnosing an adult with this disease. According to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NIDDK), studies show that both obesity and a lack of physical activity contribute to the people diagnosed with type II diabetes yearly. When the intake of calories doesn’t equal the amount of exercises one has, obesity is more than likely occur, which then creates a resistance to insulin within the body. There are other risk factors that increase the risk of getting diabetes including diagnosed cases of prediabetes left untreated, fat distribution within the body, age (which explains why more adults are diagnosed with type II diabetes), race, and family history (Mayo Clinic Organization- Risk Factors, 2014).