What is diabetes and what is causing an epidemic of diabetes in the United States and worldwide? Diabetes is a cluster of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose ensuing from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both. polygenic disease will lead to serious complications and premature death, but individuals with diabetes, operating along with their support network and their health care providers, will take steps to manage the illness and lower the chance of complications. What is causing this epidemic of diabetes? x The underlying process that leads to type 2 diabetes is called insulin resistance that actually happens to a large portion of the population. Partly because of the misguided efforts by the government through the failed food pyramid that advocated a low fat, high glycemic diet, that causes sugar rush, and crash leading to insulin resistance, the incidence of type 2 diabetes has gone up by about 500 percent in the last 50 years! Type