What's Your Diabetes Risk?

Our Health Writer, Colleen Shannon, finds out how to protect yourself.

- Colleen Shannon

IT’S no exaggeration to say that diabetes is one of the biggest health challenges of our time. In the UK, around 700 people are diagnosed with diabetes every day – that’s one person every two minutes – and it is on the increase.

Most people with the condition have Type 2 diabetes, and its rise is largely due to our increasing waistlines.

The good news is that three in five cases can be prevented or delayed. Often, it’s simply a matter of making some straightforward changes in your day-to-day life. There are also tools that make it easy to figure out your own risk, and loads of resources to help you stay healthy.

To find out more, I asked Libby Dowling, Senior Clinical Advisor at Diabetes UK. She explained that people with Type 2 diabetes don’t produce enough insulin, or the insulin they do produce doesn’t work properly.