Diabetes Causes

What causes Diabetes?

Glucose is a major source of energy for your body’s cells. It comes from the food you eat and it’s produced by your liver. With the help of insulin, glucose enters your body’s cells.

When you eat, your pancreas secretes insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin lowers the amount of sugar in your bloodstream. As your blood sugar level drops, so does the secretion of insulin from the pancreas.

Type 1 Diabetes

When you have type 1 diabetes your immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas. This leaves you with little to no insulin. Then sugar builds up in your bloodstream instead of being transported into your cells.

Genetics may play a role in the risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Another possibility other than inheriting it from your parents is contracting a viral illness.

Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes

In prediabetes and type 2 diabetes your body’s cells become resistant to insulin. And like type 1 diabetes, the glucose builds up in your bloodstream instead of being transported into your cells.

Experts attribute the following risk factors to a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes:

Weight - The more fat that you have on your body, the more your body is resistant to insulin, making diabetes more likely.

Inactivity - If you aren’t exercising, chances are you will gain weight, and become more inulin resistant. You also use glucose when you exercise.

Family History - If diabetes runs in the family, your chances of developing it are higher than average.

Age - People become more susceptible to diabetes as they get older. This is largely attributable to the fact that people tend to gain weight and become less active as they age.

Race - African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and Asian-Americans have a heightened risk of developing diabetes. Experts aren’t clear as to why this is true.

Gestational Diabetes - If you had gestational diabetes while you were pregnant, your chances of developing type 2 diabetes later in life are higher.

Gestational diabetes

During pregnancy, the placenta produces hormones to sustain pregnancy, which also make your cells more resistant to insulin. As your placenta grows larger in the second and third trimesters, it secretes more of these hormones, which makes it harder for insulin to work.

Gestational diabetes affects about 4 percent of all pregnant women, No one is immune from gestational diabetes when they are pregnant, but some people are more susceptible than others. There are some similar risk factors to type 2 diabetes, including age, race, weight and genetics.