Type 1.5 diabetes is typically found in adulthood

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease that develops over time

Almost 90 to 95% of people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, occuring when the pancreas doesn't make enough insulin or the insulin fails to work correctly. Insulin malfunction causes the pancreas to crank out increasingly high amounts of the blood sugar-regulating hormone, leading to overwork and reductions in production.

Type 1 diabetes, affecting about 5%-10% of people with diabetes, is an autoimmune disorder inhibiting insulin production.

Diabetes is a chronic disease linked to insulin production and high blood sugar

Diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease caused by a lack of, or problems processing, the hormone insulin, leading to persistently high blood sugar. Around 90 to 95% of cases are Type 2 (chronic and caused by factors like diet and environment). The remainder are Type 1 diabetes (an autoimmune disorder).

Gestational diabetes occurs when the body can't produce insulin during pregnancy

Globally, pregnant people are increasingly at risk to develop gestational diabetes due to rising maternal ages and obesity rates. The condition is associated with heavier fetal weight, congenital abnormalities, and perinatal mortality, which includes stillbirths and deaths of babies younger than 7 days old.

Is it possible to cure diabetes?

Treatments for diabetes depend on the type of condition a patient has. Gestational diabetes typically goes away after birth, and those with Type 2 diabetes may be able to reverse their condition through diet, exercise, and blood sugar management. Type 1 diabetes has no cure, but can be successfully managed.

One in 10 adults worldwide has diabetes.

Lactose intolerance is not the same as a dairy allergy

Lactose intolerance can develop in adulthood and can be influenced by genetic factors, culture, and dietary practices. Times of famine may have favored those who could digest dairy, naturally selecting them more, resulting in lactase persistence.

Diabetes 101: Insulin deficiency leads to high glucose levels in the blood

Glucose, the brain's preferred energy source, enters the bloodstream when the body breaks down consumed carbohydrates. To manage this increase in readily available energy, the body releases the hormone insulin, which allows glucose to enter and fuel our cells. Without insulin, glucose remains in the blood, causing health issues.

An overview of 200 years of diabetes treatment

Diabetes treatment became truly effective after the advent of insulin injections in the early 1900s. Diabetes is becoming increasingly common. Current trends estimate one in three Americans will have diabetes by 2050. This overview explores two centuries of diabetes treatment—starting in 1812—and outline potential challenges to treatment and prevention.

Diabetes is a hormonal disorder that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough of a hormone that regulates blood glucose, called insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

GLP-1s are netting interest for treating autoimmune diseases, but are considered experimental

Already used to treat type 2 diabetes, the novel medications are showing some early promise in experimental studies at reducing inflammation and treating autoimmune conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel conditions. But researchers caution that side effects are still under investigation—rarely the medication has caused lupus, an autoimmune disease.

Overmedication has put type 2 diabetics at risk of low blood sugar

Type 2 diabetics in the US risk dying from low blood sugar, an epidemic traced to a decades-old, multi-million-dollar drug industry campaign encouraging an average blood sugar level below 7%. Contemporary research correlated such levels with reduced risk of eye, nerve, and kidney damage and increased hypoglycemia risk.

The discovery of insulin led to a controversial Nobel Prize in 1923

For centuries, Type 1 diabetes was fatal. The 1920s "discovery" of insulin netted two of its creators—Frederick Banting and his boss, John Macleod—a Nobel prize. Separately, the German doctor Georg Zuelzer synthesized an effective version of the life-saving drug years earlier but was interrupted by World War I.

Diabetes drug GLP-1 is a peptide (that's what the 'P' is for).

More than 5 million Americans have more than one autoimmune disease

Overall, about 4.6% of the US population—15 million people—have an autoimmune condition. Some common examples include rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes, Grave's disease, and autoimmune thyroiditis.

Autoimmune diseases affect between 5% and 10% of people worldwide, but their causes remain unknown

Autoantibodies—which attack the body—may be detectable in the body years before a patient develops symptoms, but some people may have detectable levels yet never go on to develop an autoimmune disease. This video discusses this and other unsolved mysteries with autoimmune disease.

Adults are developing food allergies that they didn’t have as children

Research published in 2019 found that almost half of 40,000 surveyed adults with food allergies developed a new food allergy as adults, underscoring that our immune systems may newly misclassify substances later in life.

People with schizophrenia have triple the risk of developing diabetes

It remains contentious if something inherent about the disease or antipsychotics' side effects (weight gain) are mostly to blame. Some newly diagnosed schizophrenia patients already have insulin resistance, raising questions about if patients' brains are getting enough energy from glucose, and if dietary changes—like a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, moderate-protein diet—may help alleviate symptoms.

Leonard Thompson was the first human to receive an insulin injection for diabetes

In January 1922, the 14-year-old was the first person to receive an insulin injection to treat diabetes, just months after insulin was isolated in dogs and used to treat their induced diabetes. Thompson had an allergic response to an apparent impurity in the injection, but his second dose, 12 days later, was a success.

GLP-1 drugs are under investigation for treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and drug addiction

Researchers are investigating GLP-1 applications for a variety of chronic conditions. One area of interest stems from how study participants using GLP-1 for diabetes and obesity reported describing less longing for wine and cigarettes while taking the medication—intriguing researchers about using the drugs for addiction applications. The drug, they theorize, could bind to receptors that mediate desire. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Every 3.5 minutes in the US, a limb is amputated due to diabetes.

Diabetes has downstream effects on the heart, eyes, kidneys, and more

High blood sugar levels in untreated diabetes roughen artery walls, increasing plaque buildup, heart disease, and high blood pressure risk. High levels also cause acid to build up in the bloodstream, potentially making the brain swell, the lungs fill with fluid, and the heart to beat arrhythmically—all fatal complications.

Most of the world’s population has difficulty processing lactose—but that’s not an allergy

Lactose intolerance is a digestive condition that occurs when the small intestine has difficulty breaking down lactose, a sugar found in products like milk or cheese, leading to symptoms such as diarrhea or bloating. Almost 70% of the world’s population may have lactose processing issues, particularly in Asia and Africa. This is different from a condition called cow's milk protein allergy—an immune system disorder that can cause hives and anaphylaxis.

GLP-1 drugs, first used to manage diabetes, were derived from Gila monster saliva.

Diagnosis as an adult can have huge benefits, including helping someone with ASD to feel real

This first-person account of a woman diagnosed with autism at age 31 covers her experience of why it was useful for her to receive her diagnosis as an adult and how it helped her to understand her life and her feelings of 'being an imposter.'

This Texas city is having an 'amputation crisis'

Texas has some of the highest rates of diabetes-related amputations in the country. Towering over the rest of the Longhorn state is the city of San Antonio, where men are nearly three times as likely to lose a limb to diabetes than women. This article explains how men in this majority Mexican American city are genetically and culturally at risk of Type 2 diabetes, a disease involving issues with the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin.

About two-thirds of humans lose their ability to produce lactase after weaning

Lactase is an enzyme that digests lactose—a sugar in milk and dairy products. While genetics strongly determines lactase persistence, factors like famine, disease exposure, and gut bacteria also influence symptoms and evolution.

Addressing lifestyle factors, which influence inflammation, can cure some chronic diseases

In this video, a physician claims that he reversed a patient's Type 2 diabetes in six weeks by addressing inflammation drivers such as diet. More broadly, he argues that society needs to better consider and address numerous disease factors that are modulated by inflammation, such as stress, sleep, diet, and movement.

Autoimmune disorders are one of the top 10 killers of young and middle-aged women

Studies in the US and the UK, though conducted decades ago, have underscored that autoimmune diseases, when grouped together, are a top killer of women.

See the first dog ever treated with insulin—a peptide

Frederick Banting and his graduate student Charles Best were the first to isolate the peptide insulin from dogs. They induced diabetes in the animals and then treated them with this peptide.

Fiji's 'quiet' diabetes crisis

Across the Pacific archipelago of Fiji, diabetes often avoids diagnosis until amputation or death is imminent. Fiji's government has said nearly 30% of its population has diabetes, and, in 2019, related amputations accounted for 40% of the country's hospital operations. This "sugar disease" may have such a stronghold on the archipelago, which has a physically active culture that prizes locally sourced foods, due to cost, with processed foods being much cheaper than alternatives.

When people stopped using GLP-1, they regained two-thirds of the weight back.

12% of adults were taking injectable GLP-1 for weight loss according to 2025 survey

Weight loss injectable use rose sharply between 2024 and fall 2025. The percentage of adults who reported taking this class of medicine specifically for weight loss increased to 12.4%, compared with 5.8% in February 2024 when Gallup first measured it.

A 201-level at how GLP-1 drugs lead to appetite reduction

It's well-established that drugs which mimic the hormone GLP-1 can help people lose weight and control blood sugar levels, primarily through appetite reduction. This technical review provides an overview of how both natural and therapeutic GLP-1 interacts with the gut and brain to produce its effects.

How autoimmune diseases, which attack your own tissues and cells, work in the body

These diseases remain some of medicine's thorniest problems because the immune system can mistakenly attack almost any tissue in the body, resulting in myriad diseases, including lupus (numerous tissues affected), Hashimoto's (thyroid), and MS (the nervous system).

GLP-1s are linked to reduced worker illness and cost savings—a 2026 economic analysis finds the weight-loss drugs are tied to a 17% drop in worker sick leave days.

Understanding insulin

Scientists Daniel and Kelly talk with researcher Dr. Katrine Whiteson about diabetes, the history of insulin production, and Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff—an essential member of the team who discovered that bacteria could be induced to produce insulin. Listen to discover interesting facts about the life-saving medicine and how it works in the human body.