The reasons that type 2 diabetes occurs are different from those that trigger type 1 diabetes. Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, who become unable to produce insulin, people with type 2 diabetes produce insulin. But, either the body does not respond to insulin’s action – it’s resistant – or there is just not enough insulin to go around – there’s too much body for the amount of insulin that’s made. Either problem leads to the same outcome: insulin can’t deliver glucose to the cells that need it, and there’s too much glucose in the blood.
Virtually all cells in the body contain special proteins called receptors that bind to insulin. They work like a lock and key. In order for glucose to enter the cell, insulin mist first fit into the insulin receptor. But for some reason, in some people with type 2 diabetes, there is a faulty lock, or insulin receptor. The key doesn’t open the lock, and glucose is shut out of the cell. And in some people with type 2 diabetes, there are not enough locks, or insulin receptors, on the cells to allow enough glucose to enter. But for most people with diabetes, it’s not so much that the key doesn’t fit the lock, but that insulin doesn’t work properly. In rare cases, the insulin is mutated, or built incorrectly, and does not fit the insulin receptor.
In additional to problems with insulin and the insulin receptor, in many people with type 2 diabetes, the beta cells in the pancreas do not produce enough insulin. Without enough insulin to meet the body’s needs, glucose levels raise and diabetes results. Scientists do not know why the pancreas does not function well in these people. Some believe that the system that controls glucose levels in the blood and tells the pancreas to make more insulin does not function properly. Others think that the pancreas, after many years of working overtime, overproducing insulin to overcome insulin resistance, simply begins to burn out.
Although researchers do not fully understand why type 2 diabetes develops, they have uncovered many factors that may contribute to the disease.
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