There are two main types of diabetes that are common in Sweden

Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes which mainly affects those who are young, and which is due to the body's own immune system attacking the insulin-producing cells. It is therefore an autoimmune disease; the body attacks itself in a disease-causing way.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes, which is significantly more common and affects about 10% of Sweden's elderly population. In Type two diabetes, it is primarily insensitivity to insulin, so called insulin resistance, that is the problem. This insensitivity to insulin usually arises from being obese and especially when the fatty tissue is on the abdomen and inside the organs in the abdomen. This form of diabetes is thus strongly linked to so-called apple obesity, the typically male obesity pattern.