What Causes Diabetes?

What Causes Type 2 Diabetes?

The cause of type 2 diabetes is not completely understood, but there are risk factors that you should be aware of. Knowledge of these risk factors can enable you to prevent or push back the onset of diabetes. Many people are walking around with diabetes and don't even know it. This is troublesome, because serious damage to your organs can occur if you have diabetes for a long time and aren't treated for it.

Risk Factors:

• Being overweight or obese
• Having a sibling or parent with diabetes
• Having African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian American, Pacific Islander or Latino American ancestry
• Having a history of gestational diabetes
• High Blood Pressure
• High Triglyceride Levels (bad cholestorol), Low Levels of HDL (good cholesterol)
• Leading a sedentary lifestyle
• Being over age 65

What Causes Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease. This means that the body's defense system system attacks some of the body's own cells. In type 1 diabetes, the cells in the pancreas that make insulin are destroyed, and therefore they are no longer capable of making insulin.

Physicians don't know exactly why this happens, but they do know that some people are born with a tendency to develop diabetes. Then something "triggers" the onset of the disease. It may be a virus that triggers the onset, or it may be something in the environment. There is nothing a parent can do to prevent this from happening.