This essay will focus Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) within the community setting. Diabetes is ever growing worldwide. A study by Peirce (1999) stated that by 2052 people living with diabetes will have rose to over 300 million from 16 million in 1994. Another study completed by McPherson (2010) showed that by 2050 a ninety-eight percent rise in obesity related diabetes within the UK (Guardian online 2010). The Department of Health (DOH) has stated that Diabetes is more predominant with age, with one in twenty people at the age of sixty-five suffering from this disease. The risk of becoming diabetic increases more to one in five at the age of eight-five. It is widely understood that diabetes is becoming a subject of great importance within the world of medicine.
T2DM is an irrepressible, longstanding condition that is increasing at a fast rate because more people are becoming overweight or obese. There is also Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM). Research shows that T1DM accounts for ten to fifteen percent of all diabetes diagnosed, therefore leaving eighty-five to ninety percent of diabetes diagnosed as T2DM (ONS 2006).
Diabetes mellitus can be classified as a group of diseases which are characterised by impaired glucose homeostasis resulting from a relative or absolute insufficiency of insulin (Underwood and Cross 2009). Insulin deficiency causes high blood sugars (hyperglycaemia) and the production glycosuria (Levene 2003). Insulin is produce by the pancreas which is fundamental to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body (Sudesh and O’Rahilly 2005). More specifically it is produced from Beta cells (β cells) which are located on The Islets of