13 Risk Factors For Type 2 Diabetes

13 Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes

by Mona Morstein, ND, DHANP
There are many reasons that a person may become insulin resistant, putting themselves at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM). The following are the 13 most common risk factors. This article is excerpted from Dr. Mona Morstein’s new book: Master Your Diabetes: A Comprehensive, Integrative Approach for Both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017) and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.
13 Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes
1. Genetics
Unlike Type 1 Diabetes, which has a minor familial genetic connection, T2DM has an established genetic inheritance. A genetic risk factor essentially means that a person is more likely to develop a condition that his or her relatives had, especially if other factors are involved. Many medical conditions are genetically associated, including arthritis, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and T2DM.
Luckily, genetics does not mean a person is guaranteed to develop diabetes; eating well and having a positive, active, healthy lifestyle can absolutely prevent the occurrence of the condition.
2. Overeating
Overeating is one of the biggest risk factors for developing diabetes. Overeating can easily cause someone to become overweight or, even worse, obese.
3. Central Obesity
When we discuss obesity and T2DM, we are mainly focusing on abdominal obesity, also known as truncal obesity and visceral fat. This is fat that is stored in the abdominal cavity around organs like the liver, pancreas, and intestines. This type of fat is worse for promoting insulin resistance than su Continue reading

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Trying a new tack: delivering insulin to the liver to control type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetics, armed with glucose meters and insulin pens, are caught in a delicate high-wire act. Too much glucose wreaks havoc on nerves and blood vessels, while too little causes dizziness and nausea. A Cleveland biotech company is trying to change that by delivering insulin to the liver, where it naturally goes.
Diasome has three phase 2 clinical trials in progress testing nanoparticles known as hepatocyte-directed vesicles. These particles, smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, stick to insulin like Velcro and bring it to the liver. Diasome believes its approach will better manage patients’ blood sugar than administering insulin alone. Continue reading

Can You Reverse Type 2 Diabetes?

The number of people with type 2 diabetes continues to grow. Currently, about 7% of the population in the United States has diabetes and around a third are unaware of it. Since obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes as is aging, you can expect the incidence to continue to grow due to the obesity epidemic and the aging population. Why is this disease so common?
Although genetics play a role in who develops type 2 diabetes, the risk is also strongly influenced by lifestyle. Unlike type 1 diabetes, characterized by a lack of insulin, people with type 2 diabetes are insulin resistant. This means the receptors on cells don’t respond as readily to the insulin their pancreas produces. Over time, the pancreas is forced to pump out more and more insulin to get glucose into cells. It eventually “poops out” and can’t produce enough insulin to ferry glucose into cells and keep blood glucose levels normal. That’s when type 2 diabetes sets in.
Type 2 diabetes is often proceeded by insulin resistance, what’s often referred to as pre-diabetes, where blood sugars are higher than they should be but not yet in the diabetic range. At this point, the disease is most amenable to lifestyle changes and can often be reversed through focused lifestyle changes. But what about once type 2 diabetes sets in? Can the disease still be reversed at this stage?
Can You Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Through Healthy Living?
Previous studies suggest that lifestyle and dietary factors can reverse glucose intolerance enough that some people with type 2 diabetes can get off of diabetes medication Continue reading

Mouthwash May Trigger Diabetes—If You Use Way, Way Too Much of It

Update | A new study claims very, very frequent mouthwash use is associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, don’t clear it all out of your bathroom cabinet just yet. The association only existed for people who were using mouthwash at least twice a day, and the study only included people who had a number of pre-existing factors that put them at higher risk for developing the conditions.
The study, published on September 20 in Nitric Oxide, used data from 945 overweight or obese people who joined the San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study, based in Puerto Rico.
“Participants who used mouthwash at least twice daily had 55 percent significantly increased risk of developing pre-diabetes or diabetes over a 3-year follow-up compared to less frequent users, and 49 percent higher risk compared to non-users of mouthwash,” the authors wrote. Specifically, 30 percent of the group that used mouthwash at least twice a day developed one of the two conditions; that number was 10 percentage points less in the group of people who used mouthwash less frequently.
“There is no reason to believe it is restricted to overweight and obese people,” epidemiologist Kaumudi Joshipura told Newsweek, though being overweight is itself a risk factor for developing diabetes and prediabetes. ”We can’t know for sure, but at the same time, if I had to guess I think it may be generalizable to other populations.”
However, the study doesn’t show conclusively that mouthwash is causing diabetes. It only shows an association between significant usage and the diseas Continue reading

Feline Diabetes: The Influence of Diet

Feline diabetes mellitus is similar to human type II diabetes, also known as non-insulin dependent diabetes. In these patients, the pancreas is able to produce insulin, though it is not enough to adequately control blood sugar. This may be due to damage from inflammation of the pancreas, overwork/exhaustion of the pancreas due to chronically elevated blood sugar and/or if the cells of the body have become somewhat resistant to insulin. Whatever the cause or causes, the end result is the insulin produced by the pancreas is no longer enough to control blood sugar.¹ Glucose is a sugar, so the terms blood glucose and blood sugar are used interchangeably.
Certain disease states can contribute to or cause diabetes if they damage the pancreas or cause sustained increases in blood sugar. These conditions include pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas, hormonal diseases such as hyperthyroidism or hyperadrenocorticism, and persistent infection, such as that from chronic dental infection. Certain pharmaceutical drugs that cause increases in blood glucose, most notably steroids, may also contribute to diabetes in cats.² Lastly, obesity contributes to diabetes. Obesity in cats leads to peripheral insulin resistance. A substance called amyloid which interferes with pancreatic function has also been found to be present in the pancreas of obese cats.³ Certain breeds of cats seem more likely to develop diabetes, primarily Burmese cats.
The more common reasons for obesity and peripheral insulin resistance in cats however, are quite simple. An inappropriately high-carbohydrate Continue reading