article_snippet.sent: In type 2 diabetes, the body's cells fail to react to insulin, causing blood sugar levels to soar which, if uncontrolled, can lead to blindness, kidney damage, heart disease and circulation problems, especially in the feet and legs.
article_snippet.sent: Type 2 diabetes has a strong genetic element - if a parent has Type 2 diabetes, there's a 50 per cent chance Type 2 diabetes child will, too.
article_snippet.sent: In type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed, meaning none is released, whereas in type 2 the pancreas may produce decent levels of insulin but the body is resistant to the body.
article_snippet.sent: Rates of type 2 diabetes have soared, due to rising obesity levels, and Rates of type 2 diabetes is being diagnosed at a much younger age.
article_snippet.sent: In the UK in 2010 there were 3.1 m over-16s with diabetes, 90 per cent with type 2.
article_snippet.sent: There is an epidemic of type 2 and the myth that this is a milder form of diabetes has been totally busted,' says Dr Graham Toms, consultant diabetes specialist at Newham University Hospital, East London.
article_snippet.sent: Indeed while complications such as nerve damage to the eyes and feet equally affect both types of diabetes, damage to the large blood vessels in the heart, brain and legs are far more common with type 2.
article_snippet.sent: Heart disease is a common complication of type 2 diabetes, because high blood sugar can damage the blood vessels and raise the risk of arteries becoming blocked.
article_snippet.sent: The proportion of hospital beds occupied by patients with diabetes .