By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Type 2 diabetes is on the rise. We talk about this quite a bit and the reason we do is because if type 2 diabetes is not controlled it can cause long term damage of the blood vessels, the eyes and the kidneys.

There are many medications that can be taken to help control the blood sugar and certainly diet plays a role, but sometimes insulin is needed.

Many people are afraid of insulin because they think about relatives who may have been placed on insulin when they were very sick or close to death. This was very common in hospitalized patients in the past. Now we know that when we start insulin earlier we can prevent long term damage.