Diabetes, correctly termed diabetes mellitus, is a major epidemic of this century, which has increased in incidence by 50% over the past 10 years. This modern epidemic in some ways is rather surprising given that diabetes is one of the world’s oldest diseases, described in historical records of civilizations such as those found in ancient Egypt, Persia, and India. The World Health Organization states that 347 million people worldwide were suffering from diabetes in 2008, which equates to 9.5% of the adult population. The incidence of diabetes is rapidly increasing with estimations suggesting that this number will almost double by 2030.
There are two major forms of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, although diabetes may also manifest during pregnancy and under other conditions including drug or chemical toxicity, genetic disorders, endocrinopathies, insulin receptor disorders and in association with pancreatic exocrine disease.a number of major genetic determinants of type 1 diabetes such as alleles of the major histocompatibility locus (HLA) at the HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 loci and more recently the HLA-B*39 locus only account for some 40–50% of the familial clustering of this disorder. This suggests that there are other genetic loci involved in susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. Furthermore, there is an 6% annual increase in the risk of developing T1D in developed nations, which remains unexplained, but it is postulated to occur as a result of environmental triggers.Type 2 diabetes is the majority of the diabetes burden, comprising some 85% of cases. In this form of the disease, peripheral insulin resistance and compensatory hypersecretion of insulin from the pancreatic islets may precede the decline in islet secretory function.

References

1.Forbes JM,et al. Physiol Rev 93: 137–188, 2013.