Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, affects 10 percent of Americans diagnosed with diabetes. "[You're] not making enough insulin. That's generally from genetic reasons because your pancreas just doesn't work correctly," he says. "Type 1 has nothing to do to prevent it from happening. There's a lot we can do to treat you once it happens."
Type 2 develops from lifestyle issues. "[Patients] have a lot of belly fat and the like, and they have enough insulin," he says. "But it's not listening anymore because the belly fat has poisoned the ability of insulin to work, so the sugar is still floating around because it can't find a partner to get into your tissues."
Though type 2 affects most of the population, Dr. Oz says it's the most treatable. Patients just have to start making better lifestyle choices. "Ninety percent of type 2 diabetics can actually reverse their problem," he says.