There are a range of factors contributing to the rise in the number of people with type 2 diabetes. Our risk of diabetes increases as we get older, so the ageing population is significant.

Type 2 diabetes comprises 90% of people with diabetes around the world, and is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity (Source:WHO).

It is recognised that the risk of developing diabetes is around 20 times greater in the very obese (those with a BMI of over 35) than in people with a BMI of between 18 and 25.

Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies.

In diabetes, blood glucose levels are too high. These high levels occur because glucose remains in the blood rather than entering cells, where it belongs. For glucose to pass into a cell, insulin must be present to activate cell-membrane transport proteins such as GLUT4 and allow active transport of glucose into the cell. People with type 2 diabetes tend to have two problems; they don't make quite enough insulin and the cells of their bodies don't take in glucose as eagerly as they should.