Let’s get Type 1 out of the way first. Type 1 diabetes is when your body doesn’t produce enough insulin.

Type 2 diabetes is when your body produces too much.

Here’s what’s frightening about Type 2 diabetes though:

Half of the people with Type 2 Diabetes don’t know they have it.

It can cause blindness, vision loss, disease related amputations and kidney failure.

Make no mistake – you want to avoid Type 2 Diabetes at all costs. So what causes it?

Type 2 Diabetes happens when your diet and lifestyle keeps your blood sugar level too high.

So let’s have a look at what your body does with high sugar levels – then it’s easy to get your head around the problem.

Your body produces insulin to lower blood sugar levels. But here’s the rub of it. Overtime, if your lifestyle keeps your blood sugar high, you become resistant to insulin.

And when this happens, you have even more blood sugar highs – so you produce even more insulin… and on and on it goes, which is when the damage sets in.

The long and short of it is too much glucose and insulin (glucose causes the insulin production) causes damage to your arteries, eyes, kidneys and brain.

What’s more, your body’s natural response to too much insulin, is to go in to a constant state of inflammation, which causes more ill health, from heart disease to painful joints.

When you get your head round it, it is easy to see why type 2 diabetes is becoming the problem it is. Just look at the average life style.

But worse of all, half of the folk with it, won’t know. No wonder the men in white coats call it a ticking time bomb.

Here’s a sobering fact: The international Diabetes Federation say 25 years ago, worldwide, 30 million people had diabetes. Now there are 300 million with it.

So that leaves us with the big question, if you’re worried about diabetes, what can you do about it?

Some doctors say you have it for life. Some say you can reverse it in weeks. Who you believe is up to you.

Personally, I think you can do something about it: there are far too many stories from folk who have transformed their lives for me to think otherwise.

But as I said, I’m no doctor – just an overweight bloke, concerned about his health as time ticks on (and I guess you are too, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this).

So carry on reading – let’s see just what you can do about diabetes. As you’ll read, there’s lots. I have no doubt what works for some people won’t work for others – but that strikes me as normal. I think it’s all about finding what works for you.