Knowing about various type 2 diabetes risk factors can make us aware of ways and means to fight against this dangerous medical condition.
Diabetes is now said to be a pandemic in the US, especially, type 2 diabetes. Medical experts have started suggesting that all family members must go for a complete body check up quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, so that the possibility of chronic diseases like diabetes can be avoided. It would indeed be a great shift in the attitude of people regarding chronic diseases, if each member of the family takes responsibility to look after his or her health. Only such an effort can put an effective control to the ever-increasing population of diabetes patients. Type 2 diabetes risk factors in men, women or children are more or less the same.
Type 2 Diabetes: An Introduction
Our body produces energy from the food we eat. Once the food and nutrients pass through the digestive system, they’re broken in the form of sugar (glucose) that is carried by the bloodstream to different cells of our body. After the glucose reaches to different body cells, they use the hormone insulin, produced in the organ pancreas, to convert the glucose into energy.
In type 2 diabetes, there is a fluctuation of the blood glucose levels. When body fats, muscles and liver are unable to use the insulin properly, glucose in the body is not broken, leading to rise in the levels of glucose levels. While the pancreas will go on producing insulin for sometime, the body cells remain starved and there is a increase in glucose levels in the blood. This increase in the glucose level further leads to hosts of medical conditions like cardiovascular diseases, strokes, kidney diseases, nerve problems and various difficult complications. Insulin is a vital hormone produced by beta cells present all over the pancreas. Even though the pancreas may go on producing more insulin, at a point the body cells become immune to insulin called the condition of overt diabetes.
Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes
There are a large number of risk factors that have been identified by medical experts regarding the development of type 2 diabetes. While family history, sex and environment are considered to be the most common risk factors, there are various other lifestyle factors that increase the type 2 diabetes risks. Although men and women both are affected by type 2 diabetes, medical studies believe that women suffer from diabetes more than men. Here’s a detailed information about the same.
It is all in the Genes
Accept it or not but genetic factors play a vital role in determining our general health. It is a common observation that hereditary diseases are passed onto generations from their ancestors. If you have a family member, sibling or a close relative suffering from diabetes, you’re at a higher risk of developing this problem relative to others.
Crossing Middle Ages
Aging is said to reduce our body’s ability to fight i.e., weakens the immune system. Old aged population and individuals who cross the border of 45 years of age are at a higher risk of this disease. The reasons for this are not known very accurately but it is said that lack of exercises and adequate health care is the main reason for it. Unfortunately, nowadays, even younger population is getting diagnosed with diabetes, diluting the gravity of this risk factor.
Ethnicity/Race Matter
Extensive studies and data collected by various medical researches as well as the demography of various continents has given insights about geographical locations where the number of diabetes patients is maximum. Moreover, specific races have been found to be suffering from type 2 diabetes more than others. Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans and Asians are believed to be the most vulnerable races to diabetes.
Obesity is a Killer
Being overweight makes an individual more prone to diabetes type 2. Due to extra deposition of fatty tissues, insulin resistance becomes more severe.
Medical History of Gestational Diabetes
It is believed that women who suffered from gestational diabetes during their pregnancy are at a higher risk of suffering from diabetes in the later years of their lives. It has also been proved by medical studies that delivering a baby over 9 pounds increases the chances of suffering from type 2 diabetes in the later years of life.
Type 2 diabetes risk factors in children are almost the same as in adults, the chief reasons among them being; being overweight, family history cases, physical inactivity, race and sex (girls are more vulnerable than boys). As we can see that risk factors for diabetes type 2 are a combination of various reasons, it is essential for people to understand that to prevent oneself from diabetes, one must take proper care of their health since teenage years.
Regular exercising helps in keeping the weight in control and there is a feeling of enhanced well-being. Natural lifestyle reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and so if you haven’t yet been diagnosed with diabetes type 2, you must start taking care of your body so that it’s not too late for you.
