Type 2 Diabetes Causes
Type 2 diabetes has several causes: genetics and lifestyle are the most important ones. A combination of these factors can cause insulin resistance, when your body doesn’t use insulin as well as it should. Insulin resistance is the most common cause of type 2 diabetes. Genetics Play a Role in Type 2 Diabetes Type 2 diabetes can be hereditary. That doesn’t mean that if your mother or father has (or had) type 2 diabetes, you’re guaranteed to develop it; instead, it means that you have a greater chance of developing type 2. Researchers know that you can inherit a risk for type 2 diabetes, but it’s difficult to pinpoint which genes carry the risk. The medical community is hard at work trying to figure out the certain genetic mutations that lead to a risk of type 2. Lifestyle Is Very Important, Too Genes do play a role in type 2 diabetes, but lifestyle choices are also important. You can, for example, have a genetic mutation that may make you susceptible to type 2, but if you take good care of your body, you may not develop diabetes. Say that two people have the same genetic mutation. One of them eats well, watches their cholesterol, and stays physically fit, and the other is overweight (BMI greater than 25) and inactive. The person who is overweight and inactive is much more likely to develop type 2 diabetes because certain lifestyle choices greatly influence how well your body uses insulin. Lack of exercise: Physical activity has many benefits—one of them being that it can help you avoid type 2 diabetes, if you’re susceptible. Unhealthy meal planning choices: A meal plan filled with high-fat foods and lacking in fiber (which you can get from grains, vegetables, and fruits) increases the likelihood of type 2. Overweight/Obesity: Lack of exercise and unhealthy me Continue reading >>
Mother’s Lifestyle Can Play A Part In Whether Their Child May Develop Type 2 Diabetes In Later Life
Researchers in Sweden have found that a gene from the mother’s side could increase the risk of a child developing type 2 diabetes. A study at Lund University, recently published in the Diabetologia journal, looked at the impact of genes from a child’s parents. The heredity risk of type 2 diabetes linked with THADA (thyroid adenoma associated) gene, a protein, was found to be dominant if it came from the mother’s side, while little or no effect on the child’s risk of the condition was found if it originated from the father. There are currently more than 120 known genetic risks linked with type 2 diabetes as they affect the ability of cells to produce or respond to the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin. Study lead Rashmi Prasad said: “Our research contributes to increased knowledge about the role of the mother and father in the heredity of type 2 diabetes. “THADA proved to play an even more important role in the transfer of heredity from the mother to the child, and this was previously completely unknown.” The study combined knowledge from previous investigations by researchers at the university, with new genetic analyses of families in which one parent and a child suffer from type 2 diabetes. Professor Leif Groop at Lund University, and Chairman of the Diabetes Wellness Network Sverige, previously identified a large number of risk genes for type 2 diabetes as part of a major genetic mapping study in 2012. He was also part of a Finnish study, which showed in 1996 that the hereditary risk is greater if the mother has type 2 diabetes. The findings from the latest study showed how the hereditary risk of developing type 2 diabetes is passed down within families, and whether it comes from the mother or the father. The researchers used data and DNA gathered f Continue reading >>
The Genetics Of Diabetes
Why me? How did I deserve this? Am I to blame? These are questions that many people ask when diagnosed with a serious condition or disease. Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut answer when it comes to diabetes. Unlike some traits, diabetes doesn’t seem to be inherited in a simple pattern, and there is a lot of misinformation out there about its causes. (Have you ever had to explain that diabetes doesn’t happen because someone ate too much sugar?) It’s apparent, though, that some people are born more likely to develop diabetes than others. We know that type 1 and type 2 diabetes have different causes, but genetics plays an important role in both types. People with diabetes inherit a predisposition to the disease, then something in their environment triggers it. Identical twins are proof that genes alone are not enough, however. Identical twins have identical genes; therefore, they should have the same genetic risk for a disease—right? Not necessarily. Research has found that if one identical twin has type 1 diabetes, the other twin will get the disease about 50 percent of the time. For type 2 diabetes, that risk rises to as much as 4 in 5. In both type 1 and type 2, identical twins have a much higher risk of both developing diabetes than non-identical (fraternal) twins, which further supports the fact that genetics is involved. So what are the causes of type 1 diabetes? Again, we know that genetics is involved. We also know that it’s not just one gene responsible, but many different genes, each of which contributes only a small part of the risk. Scientists have identified a few genes responsible for type 1, but the majority of the genetic risk is still unidentified. Because of the data about identical twins, we know that type 1 diabetes doesn’t arise solely Continue reading >>
- The Genetics of Diabetes
- DNA methylation links genetics, fetal environment, and an unhealthy lifestyle to the development of type 2 diabetes
- American Diabetes Association® Releases 2018 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, with Notable New Recommendations for People with Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes
Genetics Of Diabetes
You've probably wondered how you got diabetes. You may worry that your children will get it too. Unlike some traits, diabetes does not seem to be inherited in a simple pattern. Yet clearly, some people are born more likely to get diabetes than others. What leads to diabetes? Type 1 and type 2 diabetes have different causes. Yet two factors are important in both. First, you must inherit a predisposition to the disease. Second, something in your environment must trigger diabetes. Genes alone are not enough. One proof of this is identical twins. Identical twins have identical genes. Yet when one twin has type 1 diabetes, the other gets the disease at most only half the time. When one twin has type 2 diabetes, the other's risk is at most 3 in 4. Type 1 diabetes In most cases of type 1 diabetes, people need to inherit risk factors from both parents. We think these factors must be more common in whites because whites have the highest rate of type 1 diabetes. Because most people who are at risk do not get diabetes, researchers want to find out what the environmental triggers are. One trigger might be related to cold weather. Type 1 diabetes develops more often in winter than summer and is more common in places with cold climates. Another trigger might be viruses. Perhaps a virus that has only mild effects on most people triggers type 1 diabetes in others. Early diet may also play a role. Type 1 diabetes is less common in people who were breastfed and in those who first ate solid foods at later ages. In many people, the development of type 1 diabetes seems to take many years. In experiments that followed relatives of people with type 1 diabetes, researchers found that most of those who later got diabetes had certain autoantibodies in their blood for years before. (Antibodies ar Continue reading >>
- The Genetics of Diabetes
- DNA methylation links genetics, fetal environment, and an unhealthy lifestyle to the development of type 2 diabetes
- American Diabetes Association® Releases 2018 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, with Notable New Recommendations for People with Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes
We All Know That We Share Something With The People We Are Related To.
This is because we inherit DNA from our parents, who inherited their DNA from their parents. Our DNA is packaged into 23 different chromosomes. We have two copies of each of these chromosomes, one set that we get from our mother and the other set we get from our father. That gives us a total of 46 chromosomes arranged into 23 chromosome pairs. When we inherit those chromosomes from our parents, we also inherit the DNA sequence variants, which is why people tend to look more like their parents and siblings than other people. There are different ways that traits and diseases can be passed through a family. Some traits and genetic diseases are influenced by only one gene, whereas others are influenced by multiple genes. For some genes, a single variant can dramatically influence your risk of getting a certain disease. The majority of these diseases are rare and the chance that you will get the disease depends on how that variant is inherited. Some examples of rare single-gene diseases include cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. Other diseases are caused by variants in many different genes in your genome. The risk that someone develops type 2 diabetes, for example, is determined by the combination of variants in more than 8 different genes. There are two basic modes of genetic inheritance that describe how single-gene diseases are passed through a family: dominant and recessive. Recessive diseases, like cystic fibrosis, require two disease-causing variants to get the disease. One variant must be inherited from the mother and the other from the father, even if neither the mother nor father has the disease. For recessive diseases, parents who harbor a disease-causing variant but do not actually show the disease are called carriers. In order for a child to inherit a re Continue reading >>
Genetics And Type 1 Diabetes
If you have type 1 diabetes, you might wonder if your child would get it, too. Or if one of your parents has it, what it means for you. Your genes definitely play a role in type 1, a less common form of diabetes that’s often diagnosed in children and young adults. But they’re not the whole story. Like much in life, it’s a mix of nature and nurture. Your environment, from where you grow up to the foods you eat, also matters. Researchers don’t know exactly how -- and how much -- all those things affect your chances of getting the disease. Your genes set the stage, but you can’t be certain how it'll all play out. There’s no diabetes gene that gets turned on or off to give you type 1. Instead, a bunch of them play a role, including a dozen or so that have the biggest say: the HLA genes. They make proteins your immune system uses to keep you healthy. Since type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease -- your body destroys the cells that make insulin -- it makes sense that HLA genes are front and center. There are thousands of versions of them in the human gene pool. Which ones you get from your parents affect your chances of diabetes in a big way. Some make you more likely to get it, while others can help protect you from it. You have type 1 if your body makes little or no insulin, a hormone that helps your body turn sugar into energy. Certain genes are more common in one group of people than in another. That’s why race and ethnicity affect things, too. For example, white people are more likely to have type 1 diabetes than others. But even if you have genes that make you more likely to get type 1, that doesn’t mean you definitely will. Even with identical twins -- who have the same exact genes -- sometimes one gets it and the other doesn’t. That’s where the e Continue reading >>
Reducing Diabetes Risks For The Whole Family
Diabetes is a disease that affects more and more Americans every day: Almost 26 million children and adults in the United States now have diabetes, and another 79 million US residents are living with prediabetes, a condition in which blood tests show a blood glucose level that is higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. People with prediabetes have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Blood relatives of people with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes also have a higher risk of developing the same type of diabetes as their family member. And people who have diabetes run the risk of developing long-term complications associated with diabetes. In some cases, being aware of having a heightened risk for diabetes enables a person to be proactive about reducing the risk. For example, people with prediabetes and blood relatives of people with Type 2 diabetes can reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by making lifestyle changes, such as increased physical activity, that burn calories, lower blood glucose levels, and encourage weight maintenance or weight loss. Close relatives of people with Type 1 diabetes can have their risk of developing the condition assessed through blood tests. While no one yet knows how to prevent Type 1 diabetes, people determined to be at high risk can be followed closely, so that if they develop diabetes, they can be diagnosed early and be started on treatment as early as possible. People who already have diabetes can lower their risk of developing long-term complications by taking steps to manage their blood glucose, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol levels. Diabetes and genetics The reasons that diabetes runs in families are complex, and they differ between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. In both cases, ho Continue reading >>
Genetics & Diabetes : What's Your Risk?
A school nurse anxiously wants to know if there is a reason why several children from her small grade school have been diagnosed with type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes. Is it an epidemic? Will there be more cases? Is a recent chicken pox outbreak to blame? A man in his 50s develops type 2 diabetes. His mother developed diabetes in her 60s. Should this man's brother and sister be concerned, too? What about his children's chances of developing diabetes? A married couple wants to have children, but they are concerned because the husband has type 1 diabetes. They wonder what the risk is that their child would have diabetes. A couple has three young children. One of the children develops type 1 diabetes. There's no history of diabetes anywhere in either parent's families. Is this just a fluke? What are the chances the other children will develop diabetes? Chances are if you or a loved one have diabetes, you may wonder if you inherited it from a family member or you may be concerned that you will pass the disease on to your children. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center report that, while much has been learned about what genetic factors make one more susceptible to developing diabetes than another, many questions remain to be answered. While some people are more likely to get diabetes than others, and in some ways type 2 (adult onset diabetes) is simpler to track than type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes, the pattern is not always clear. For more than 20 years researchers in the Epidemiology and Genetics Section at Joslin in Boston (Section Head Andrzej S. Krolewski, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator James H. Warram, M.D., Sc.D., and colleagues) have been studying diabetes incidence and hereditary factors. They are continuing a scientific journey begun by Elliott P. Joslin, M.D., Continue reading >>
What Is The Risk A Child Will Develop Diabetes If A Parent Is Diabetic?
Question:What is the risk that a child will develop diabetes if one or both parents are diabetic? Answer: The key factor in figuring out the familial risk of diabetes is what we call first-degree relatives. The number of first degree relatives -- that is to say parents, siblings or children -- who have the disease. If you have one first-degree relative who has type 1 diabetes, you're risk is on the order of 10 to 15 times higher of getting that disease than if you don't. One the other hand, that 10 or 15 times increased risk still means that it's a low probability you'll actually get the disease. In other words, it might be 1 in 200 of getting type 1 diabetes if you're walking down the street, living in America. It might be 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 if you have a parent, or a sibling or a child who has the disease. But that still means it's unlikely because those other factors -- environment and behavior and bad luck -- play a big role. In type 2 diabetes, if you have a sibling or a parent who has the disease, you're risk is as high as 1 in 3. And if you have two siblings or two parents who have the disease, it's higher still. But even in type 2 diabetes, where the absolute risk is higher, there's still many non-genetic factors and our behavior can change the likelihood of getting the disease. Next: Can I Get Diabetes Even If No One In The Family Has It? Previous: Which Type Of Diabetes Is More Likely To Be Inherited And Why? Continue reading >>
Diabetes And Genetics
Tweet Genetics play a strong role in the chances of developing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Other factors include environment and lifestyle. Diabetes is an increasingly common chronic condition affecting millions of people in the UK alone. Diabetes and genetic risk The risk of developing diabetes is affected by whether your parents or siblings have diabetes. The likelihood of developing type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes differ, as you can see below. Type 1 diabetes and genetics - average risks Mother with diabetes increases risk of diabetes by 2% Father with diabetes increases risk of diabetes by 8% Both parents with diabetes increases risk by 30% Brother or sister with diabetes increases risk by 10% Non-identical twin with diabetes increases risk by 15% Identical twin with diabetes increases risk by 40% Type 2 diabetes and genetics - average risks If either mother of father has diabetes increases risk of diabetes by 15% If both mother and father have diabetes increases risk by 75% If non-identical twin has diabetes increases risk by 10% If identical twin has diabetes increases risk by 90% Some other forms of diabetes may be directly inherited, including maturity onset diabetes in the young (MODY) and diabetes due to mitochondrial DNA mutation. However, neither type 1 or type 2 diabetes may be entirely genetically determined. Experts believe that environmental factors act as either ‘initators’ or ‘accelerators.’ Several genes are known as susceptibility genes, meaning that if an individual is carrying this gene they face greater risk of developing diabetes. Similarly, other genes provide greater immune tolerance for non-diabetics. My family have type 2 diabetes, will I get it? Type 2 diabetes is, in part, inherited. First degree relatives of individuals wit Continue reading >>
- DNA methylation links genetics, fetal environment, and an unhealthy lifestyle to the development of type 2 diabetes
- The Genetics of Diabetes
- American Diabetes Association® Releases 2018 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, with Notable New Recommendations for People with Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes
Thada - New Findings In The Role Of The Mother In Type 2 Diabetes
Research from Lund University in Sweden can explain why type 2 diabetes is inherited to a greater extent from an individual’s mother. The heredity of a previously known risk gene, THADA, has proven to be dominant if it comes from the mother, whereas it has little or no effect on the child’s risk of disease if it originates from the father. “Our research contributes to increased knowledge about the role of the mother and father in the heredity of type 2 diabetes”, says Rashmi Prasad. The causes of type 2 diabetes are a combination of heredity and environment. However, only up to 15 percentage of the heredity can be explained by genetic factors discovered till date. Leif Groop, the Lund University professor responsible for the new study, has contributed to a large extent to our current knowledge about heredity and type 2 diabetes. He participated in the first major genetic mapping presented in 2012, which identified a large number of risk genes for type 2 diabetes. He was also part of a Finnish study which showed in 1996 that the hereditary risk is greater if the mother has type 2 diabetes. The new study combines knowledge from the previous investigations with new genetic analyses of families in which one parent and a child suffer from type 2 diabetes. The findings from the study explain how the heredity of the disease is passed down within families, whether it comes from the mother or the father. The researchers used data and DNA gathered from two of the world’s largest family studies, the Botnia study in Finland and the Transdanubian Biobank in Hungary. In total, around 4000 families were included in the study of which 2000 were used for the current study. The results show that the variations in two previously identified risk genes for type 2 diabetes, KCNQ1 a Continue reading >>
Parental History And Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes In Overweight Latino Adolescents
OBJECTIVE— The purpose of this article was to examine metabolic risk factors for type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents as a function of maternal versus paternal family history of type 2 diabetes and to examine whether differences in these risk factors emerge during adolescent growth. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— A total of 247 overweight Latino children (baseline age = 11.1 ± 1.7 years) with a parental history of type 2 diabetes were followed annually for 5 years (2.2 ± 1.2 observations/child) with measures of insulin sensitivity, acute insulin response to glucose, and disposition index. Longitudinal linear mixed-effects modeling was used to evaluate the influence of maternal versus paternal family history of type 2 diabetes on changes in diabetes risk factors over age. RESULTS— Insulin sensitivity and the disposition index decreased over age (β = −0.052 and β = −0.033, P < 0 0.01). Acute insulin response to glucose and fasting and 2-h glucose increased (β = 0.019, β = 0.002, and β = 0.003, P < 0.01). Declines in insulin sensitivity were significantly greater in participants whose maternal grandmothers had a history of type 2 diabetes (β = −0.03, P = 0.03). Declines in the disposition index (β = −0.02, P = 0.04) and increases in fasting glucose were significantly influenced by a maternal history of type 2 diabetes (β = 0.60, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS— Maternal but not paternal family history for diabetes may have a significant impact on insulin dynamics, becoming more pronounced during growth in overweight Latino adolescents. Further research is clearly warranted. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— Participants were recruited to participate in the Study of Latino Adolescents at Risk (SOLAR) diabetes project at the University of Southern Californ Continue reading >>
How Likely Is It That Children Will Inherit Type 1 Diabetes From Their Father?
Short answer: It's difficult to know exactly. The reference provided below says that if the father has type 1 diabetes, the risk is about 1 in 10 (10 percent) that his child will develop it - but this might be too high. Estimates vary. Long answer: Genetics of Diabetes In most cases of type 1 diabetes, people need to inherit risk factors from both parents. We think these factors must be more common in whites because whites have the highest rate of type 1 diabetes. Because most people who are at risk do not get diabetes, researchers want to find out what the environmental triggers are. One trigger might be related to cold weather. Type 1 diabetes develops more often in winter than summer and is more common in places with cold climates. Another trigger might be viruses. Perhaps a virus that has only mild effects on most people triggers type 1 diabetes in others. Early diet may also play a role. Type 1 diabetes is less common in people who were breastfed and in those who first ate solid foods at later ages. In many people, the development of type 1 diabetes seems to take many years. In experiments that followed relatives of people with type 1 diabetes, researchers found that most of those who later got diabetes had certain autoantibodies in their blood for years before. Genetics & Diabetes: What's Your Risk? Just who is at risk for developing type 1 diabetes? Here's a sampling of what Dr. Warram, a Lecturer in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, said is known: If an immediate relative (parent, brother, sister, son or daughter) has type 1 diabetes, one's risk of developing type 1 diabetes is 10 to 20 times the risk of the general population; your risk can go from 1 in 100 to roughly 1 in 10 or possibly higher, depending on which family member has the diabetes a Continue reading >>
Gestational Diabetes: Fathers Have Higher Risk Of Developing Type 2 Diabetes
Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy in non-diabetic women. It is characterized by high levels of glucose (sugar) in the blood and it affects around 20% of pregnant women. For women who develop this condition during pregnancy, the risk of becoming a type 2 diabetic increases after giving birth. In fact, recent studies have proven that this risk not only applies to mothers, but to fathers as well. The study that led to this finding was conducted by Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, an endocrinologist at the McGill University Health Centre in Canada. Her research team analyzed data collected over 20 years from Quebec, Canada and concluded that the factors that lead to gestational diabetes increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes in both mothers and fathers are not only metabolic, but behavioral as well. From 1990 to 2007, the records of mothers with a positive diagnosis for gestational diabetes were randomly selected and compared with mothers from the same province who did not have the disease. They then identified fathers who became type 2 diabetic after the mother’s post-delivery and discharge from the hospital until the fathers’ departure from Quebec, death, or the end of the study period, which was March 31, 2012. Dr. Dasgupta explains that couples appear to share the risk for developing type 2 diabetes after the onset of gestational diabetes in mothers partly because of their shared social and cultural environment, which may influence health behaviors and lifestyles. “The study reinforces the findings of our previous study on shared risk for diabetes in spouses, and prior studies indicating that less healthy eating habits and low physical activity could be shared within a household. Our data suggests that gestational diabetes could be leveraged as a tool to enhance Continue reading >>
Genetics Of Type 2 Diabetes: It Matters From Which Parent We Inherit The Risk
Go to: 1. Introduction Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an emerging epidemic today, estimated to affect more than 517 million people worldwide in 2015. Projections show that there will be 592 million people with this lifelong chronic disease in 2035. It is also estimated that there are 3-4 times more people with undiagnosed diabetes (The accelerating incidence and prevalence of diabetes is inevitably associated with an increasing number of patients who develop devastating diabetic complications. Today, T2D is diagnosed on the basis of elevated fasting and/or postprandial glucose levels above a diagnostic threshold. However, the majority of patients has elevated glucose levels for many years before diagnosis. We and others have previously reported that the strongest risk factors associated with diabetes development include obesity, elevated fasting and/or postprandial glucose levels, dyslipidemia, and blood pressure [1, 2]. Although insulin resistance has been postulated as the driving force in the pathogenesis of T2D, using data from the large, prospective BOTNIA Study with longitudinal measurements of insulin secretion, we demonstrated that a decline in insulin secretion adjusted for the degree of insulin sensitivity is the key factor contributing to overt diabetes [3]. We and others have also reported α-hydroxybutyrate, linoleoyl-glycerophosphocholine, and copeptin as novel biomarkers to be associated with increased risk of T2D [4, 5]. However, these new biomarkers require a systematic evaluation and validation across different studies and populations before their actual diagnostic and prognostic value is confirmed. Among all risk factors for T2D, family history of diabetes consistently confirms a 1.5-3.0 fold increased risk for T2D in both cross-sectional and longitudinal s Continue reading >>
