Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
A disease of insulin resistance plus progressive beta-cell failure that raises glucose enough to cause osmotic symptoms and long-term vascular damage; treatment lowers glucose while attacking the cardiovascular risk that actually kills patients.
First principles
Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance that eventually outruns the pancreas
Peripheral tissues (muscle, liver, fat) become resistant to insulin's signal, usually in the setting of excess adiposity. Early on the beta cells compensate by secreting more insulin and glucose stays normal. Diabetes appears only when the beta cells can no longer keep up: secretion falls behind demand and glucose rises. This two-hit model (resistance plus relative insulin deficiency) explains why the disease is progressive and why, over years, more and more agents (and eventually insulin itself) are often needed as beta-cell function declines.
Educational content pending clinical review. Not medical advice.