There used to be a clear-cut way to distinguish diabetes type 1 and type 2. Medical jargon aside:
Type 1 diabetes was a genetic autoimmune disease that presented in young people.
And type 2 diabetes was a disease that presented in older patients in their fifties or sixties due to an unhealthy lifestyle.
But that distinction of young and old doesn't work anymore.
More and more, younger people are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. In England, for example, the biggest increase in new diagnoses of type 2 diabetes is among young women.
