Causes of type 2 diabetes include when the body grows resistant to insulin, or when there is an insulin deficiency in the body.  Where we stand today, scientists have not yet pinpointed the exact cause of diabetes.  Even so, they have been able to come up with several factors that increase the risk and chances of a person getting diabetes.  The most common of these causes includes smoking, obesity, a history of diabetes in the family, the consumption of an unhealthy diet, the regular consumption of too many sugars, carbohydrates and proteins, emotional stress, age, and some virus infections such as the Coxsackie B virus.  To avoid being at risk for diabetes, it is important to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.  Staying away from the factors that will put you at risk only betters your chances of staying healthy.  It is mostly common sense, really.  If one stays with a work out schedule, and keeps a healthy, balance diet, as well as maintains a low stress lifestyle and stays away from smoking cigarettes, they should leave a happy and healthy life.  Rocket science, I know.  It seems so easy on paper, but if it were, there would not be so many people that suffer from diabetes.