• Type 1 diabetes which affects an estimated 11,000 people in New Zealand have this. It is more common in European people than Maori or Pacific people, Most people with type 1 diabetes develop it as children or teenagers.
• Type 2 diabetes which affects an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 people in New Zealand have type 2 diabetes. Maori and Pacific people are almost three times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as European people are. Most people with type 2 diabetes develop it after the age of 40. People over 40 years who are overweight or inactive (especially Maori, Pacific Islands or Asian people), are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
• Gestational diabetes occurs in some women while they are pregnant. Blood glucose levels usually return to normal once the baby is born, but women who have gestational diabetes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life. Diabetes in pregnancy remains a leading cause of congenital abnormalities, stillbirths and miscarriages.

Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of this disease and was seen in the past in adults over 40.  However, with today's fast way of living and fast food, children and younger people are being diagnosed with it.

It is linked closely to our increasingly sedentary lifestyles and being obese with a lack of physical inactivity which greatly increases the change of being victim to this disease.

There is no one cause for diabetes. Obesity (especially around the stomach), lack of physical activity and excess food intake, especially fat and sugar are the main risk factors that can be changed. Diabetes also has a hereditary component, and runs in families. It is more common in Maori, Pacific and Asian people. Its prevalence increases with age. Up to one in six of those over 60 years have diagnosed diabetes.

To Prevent Diabetes:
1. Be physically active as type 2 diabetes is linked to inactivity
2. Eat a wide variety of natural foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods.
3. Eat less sugar, sweets and fatty foods.

Physiology
When we eat any types of food, our body converts the food to energy (ATP), then the Energy  (ATP)  is used by the Human Cell.  ATP is the simplest form of energy that the cells in our body can use to do their normal daily actives.  For example, the Human cells uses ATP for a wide range of  like:

• Muscle contraction for locomotion moments
• Rebuilding and repairing of tissues
• Digestion and Transpiration of food, to everything else that happen in the body that hold homeostasis.
  However, With diabetes, The body has difficulties using food properly because it either fails to make enough insulin or doesn't use insulin correctly.
• Insulin is a hormone that helps convert food into energy.  For Example, after eating a meal, a person blood surge raises above homeostasis levels.  So, the receptors in the human arteries pick up the increase of surge levels.  After, the Receptors fire off a signal is sent to the to a brain, which then, the brain sends a message to the pancreas to release insulin because insulin decreases the  blood surge levels.  However, People that are victims to diabetes have a hard time controlling blood sugar levels.