When hearing the word diabetes, most people think of sugar and insulin or of a friend or family member who suffers from this condition but rarely thinks about how prone we are to suffer from this disease. The truth is that each time they are more people in the world who are diagnosed with diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that prevents the body from regulating the amount of concentrated glucose in the blood. The pancreas is the organ responsible for producing insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar and is used by cells as fuel. A person with diabetes mellitus may have zero insulin production, known as type 1 diabetes, or insulin is not used correctly, which occurs in patients with type 2 diabetes.
But, in any of its forms, is diabetes hereditary? Find out the answer to this critical question in this FastlyHealarticle.
Table of Contents
Types of diabetes
Diabetes type 1
This type of diabetes mellitus is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes since, in these cases, the pancreas, the organ that secretes insulin, has stopped producing this hormone. Therefore, the only way to regulate blood glucose levels is through insulin injections. For the person to live and his body to function correctly, he must inject insulin several times a day.
Type 2 diabetes
It is the most common type of diabetes mellitus. It occurs when insulin is not used correctly in the body and therefore does not burn blood sugar as it should. It can also happen because insulin production is low. It is usually diagnosed in adulthood, and it is often believed that everyone with type 2 diabetes will need insulin injections at some point in their life.
Gestational diabetes
It occurs when a pregnant woman has high blood sugar levels without being previously diabetic. In our article gestational diabetes: causes, symptoms, and treatment, we offer you complete information about this commonly transitory condition.
What are the symptoms of diabetes?
Diabetes is a silent disease since most of the forms it manifests do not usually present warning signs until the condition has advanced. When this stage begins, the main symptoms of diabetes are:
- However excessive.
- Blurry vision.
- Hunger, more appetite than usual.
- Weight loss with no apparent cause.
- Frequent urination
In the case of type 1 diabetes, the person may present the symptoms with greater intensity, which favors a faster diagnosis, but the health may be more compromised than is thought. On the contrary, when it comes to type 2 diabetes, it may take a while for the person to discover that they have diabetes, but at the time of diagnosis, the disease is still controllable.
Causes and risk factors of diabetes
- Biological cause.
- Bad nutrition.
- Overweight.
- Sedentary life.
- And, yes: family history or hereditary factor.
Is diabetes hereditary?
Although it cannot be said that because a father or mother has diabetes, their children will also have diabetes, it is proven that people with a family history of diabetes are at greater risk of suffering from this disease.
How hereditary is diabetes? Let’s see!
The hereditary factor of type 1 diabetes
Studies have shown that the risk of suffering from type 1 diabetes due to family history is more important when both parents have diabetes. Therefore it is considered that 1 in 10 is the chance that a child with a father and mother with type 1 diabetes will be born with diabetes.
However, this situation is scarce, which is why other phenomena that may be associated with the development of type 1 diabetes are currently being studied based on the analysis of the geographical location and even the skin color of most patients. People with this disease. Some hypotheses are:
- Type 1 diabetes is more common in cold climates than in hot areas.
- Type 1 diabetes is more common in breastfed people for short periods. Therefore early diet is considered another risk factor.
- It has been proven that people who develop type 1 diabetes in adulthood have autoantibodies in the blood, that is, antibodies that act against the body’s antigens.
Being exposed to one of these factors plus a genetic history could increase a person’s chances of developing type 1 diabetes.
Hereditary factors of type 2 diabetes
You can say that type 2 diabetes keeps an r closer to family history joy, but also linked with specific appearance environmental and social factors, such as:
- Poor diet and obesity are imitated in the family because at home and during parenting are where a person learns to eat. If a person grows up in a family with a history of diabetes but who also eats based on fats and abuses carbohydrates, the members are passive. There is obesity; the risk of suffering from diabetes is likely more significant than a person whose family eats healthy, exercises, and is at their ideal weight.
- Identifying the hereditary origin of type 2 diabetes is complicated because generally, people who develop this disease have both family history and poor eating habits, being overweight and sedentary. However, type 2 diabetes has an advantage: whether or not the hereditary factor exists, its appearance can be prevented or delayed with diet and exercise.
- 1 in 2 is the chance that a child with a type 2 diabetic father and mother will be born with diabetes.
Eating a healthy and balanced diet, maintaining a good weight, and physical activity frequently and several times a week is the best way to prevent type 2 diabetes and guarantee our general health and well-being.
This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.
If you want to read more articles similar to Is diabetes hereditary? We recommend that you enter our Endocrine System category .
I am a Surgeon with a diploma in comprehensive ultrasound and surgical care residency, an area I am specializing in. During the exercise of my profession, I have realized the need for patients to know the diseases they suffer, and I can tell you that a large part of their complications is due to a lack of information. Being a health web writer allows me to transmit my experience, without borders, to all those readers eager for knowledge, educate them in the prevention of diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle.