Understanding Type 2 Diabetes
The insulin-resistance pathway, the role of beta-cell fatigue, and why South Asian bodies follow a different progression than the global average.
Type 2 diabetes is what most people mean when they say "diabetes" — about 90% of cases worldwide. Two things go wrong, slowly: insulin resistance and beta-cell fatigue.
Your body breaks food down into glucose that travels in your blood. To get it from blood into cells, you need insulin from the pancreas. In Type 2, cells stop responding properly to insulin (resistance), and the pancreas overworks then wears out (fatigue).
Why South Asian bodies are different
A South Asian person with BMI 23 has roughly the same diabetes risk as a European person with BMI 30. Visceral fat accumulates at lower body weights, driving insulin resistance earlier. Indian guidelines use BMI 23 as the overweight threshold, not 25.
How DiaCare AI uses this
DiaCare’s risk scanner uses South-Asian-adjusted BMI thresholds and the IDRS (Indian Diabetes Risk Score) framing. When a user asks about Type 2, the system prompt anchors the answer in this context rather than global averages.