What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease in which the body can no longer keep blood sugar in balance. This is because the body has too little of the hormone insulin. And the body often no longer responds well to insulin. Or it doesn't make any insulin at all. Insulin regulates blood sugar.

Diederik Jekel explains in this video in 1 minute what diabetes is.

Different types of diabetes

Diabetes is also known as diabetes mellitus. The most common type is type 2 diabetes: nine out of ten people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. They have too little insulin in the body and no longer respond well to it.

Reading tip: Symptoms of diabetes

There are also people whose immune system attacks the cells that produce insulin. This is due to an error in the cells that make insulin. Then you have type 1 diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes have to measure blood sugar, inject insulin or wear a pump every day. They can't eat a bite without calculating how much insulin it takes.

In addition to type 1 and 2 diabetes, there are other types of diabetes. View the overview of all types of diabetes.

What causes diabetes?

We don't know exactly what causes diabetes. People are more likely to get type 2 diabetes if it runs in the family, if they are overweight and if they don't exercise much. But not everyone can avoid getting type 2 diabetes. There are also people who always live a healthy life and who still get type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes starts with a predisposition to type 1 diabetes, even without diabetes in the family. Then the cells that make insulin become out of balance, causing the immune system to attack the cells that make insulin.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes, but young people can get it too. This form of diabetes is the most common: 1.1 million people in the Netherlands have type 2 diabetes. There are various ways to treat type 2 diabetes.

In type 2 diabetes, the body no longer responds well to insulin. That is the hormone that regulates blood sugar. The insulin is invisible, as it were, and cannot do its job. As a result, too much sugar remains in your blood. Initially, the body makes extra insulin, but less and less over time.

Causes of Type 2 Diabetes

We know that this increases the risk of type 2 diabetes:

little exercise
overweight
eating unhealthy
to smoke
become older
heredity
But for some people with type 2 diabetes, the causes are still unclear.

That is why the Diabetes Fund supports a lot of research so that we can better understand type 2 diabetes.

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes

People often walk around unnoticed for years with type 2 diabetes, because the symptoms are not so clear. > How do you recognize diabetes?

Diagnosis of type 2 diabetes

See your doctor if you think you have type 2 diabetes. The doctor can determine this with a blood sugar test. To be able to make the diagnosis with certainty, fasting blood sugar must be measured. That is, in the morning if you have not eaten or drunk anything except water for 8 hours before. If the fasting blood sugar value is higher than 6.9 mmol/l, you have diabetes.

> Read more about the results of the blood sugar test

Treatment of type 2 diabetes

The treatment of type 2 diabetes is done with the help of a healthy diet, a lot of exercise and often also medicines for blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. And sometimes also with insulin injections on yourself.

> Read more about the treatment or guidance for type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes, all information at a glance

Receive the free brochure with everything you need to know about type 2 diabetes:

• How do you recognize it?
• What are the causes?
• And what can you do about it?