Considering the causes of diabetes early on would lead you toward prevention, not to mention how common it is to have diabetes for whatever age due to different circumstances. Unfortunately, despite the medical progression and evolution, diabetes is still without any cure. Only some ways to coexist.
As a matter of fact, the causes of diabetes are various, and you’re probably facing such causes daily, whether it’s something you do or something you inherit from your parents and ancestors. So this is not a message to worry about but to have the entire image that makes you take precautions to avoid it if possible.
The diabetic influence is widely known, and we’ll show it statistically as follows:
There’s one between every 10 individuals with diabetes and its symptoms; this includes all age stages. It is more concerning that more statistics show that one in every 5 diabetic patients is unaware of their diabetic reality. These statistics concern those over 18 years old and adults in general. Taking a closer scoop, showing the diabetic influence on the elderly, numbers would obviously vary, as it offers a senior between every 5 seniors with diabetes.
The lines above show you how the causes of diabetes are essential to be known and explored in order to do whatever it takes to avoid it or at least be aware of how to live with it in peace. First, however, let’s get to know more about the diabetic influence in general before discussing the causes of diabetes in particular.
What’s Diabetes?
The diabetic influence starts when body cells can’t absorb sugar or glucose normally to produce power, leading to higher blood sugar levels.
Diabetes leads to many consequences and complications that have a vast influence, which can hit several body organs with some diabetic effects, among which we can mention the diabetic foot.
However, you can read this article in order to know more about the diabetic influence in detail, and in particular, diabetes symptoms.
However, this article will be totally dedicated to spreading out causes of diabetes, which you could be already subjected to, so we recommend you keep reading.
Yet, let’s know the types of diabetes briefly first.
Diabetes Types
In fact, causes of diabetes could vary according to the type, which’s the same case for ways of treatment. There are two main types of diabetes, yet, two more types could be added to the list, with a possible temporary one, as you’ll see through the following.
Diabetes Type1:
This type hits the immunity system, leading to pancreas cell damage, the insulin factory in our bodies.
Insulin job rolls around containing sugar amounts and makes it able to be absorbed by different body cells.
Medicine and science are still unsure about the causes of diabetes type 1, but we know that it could have some heritage and genetic reasons based, as we’ll spread later.
Diabetes Type2:
This type comes due to some resistance against insulin efficiency, leading to sugar or glucose accumulation throughout the bloodstream, affecting, in its turn, the blood circulation efficiency and how it serves power to body cells. This type is responsible for 90 to 95% of diabetic patients worldwide.
Diabetes Type 1.5:
As funny as it sounds, yet it’s a severe type, which gains its name from how it could be described.
Type 1.5 is something between both type 1 and type 2. It’s similar to type 1 regarding how it works, as it leads immunity cells to attack pancreas cells, though it turns out to be type 2 by aging.
In fact, this type can not be controlled by just converting to a healthier lifestyle and meals. Still, it asks for different types of medicines and outer insulin intake according to the diagnosis and doctor’s prescription.
Gestational Diabetes:
Being pregnant could be enough reason to develop some influence for women due to some hormones produced by the placenta that could block insulin from doing its primary job. Most probably, this type won’t last post-pregnancy, yet, in a few cases, it could be converted to chronic diabetes.
Moreover, there’s another type that’s called false diabetes. In general, we cannot categorize it as a diabetes type. Still, it has a similar influence, as, for some reason, kidneys start to throughout more amounts of fluids, leading to similar symptoms.
Each type has its own symptoms, complications, causes, and risk factors, which we’ll detail through the following lines.
Diabetes Risk Factors
Risk factors could be depicted as one or more of these categories, habits, lifestyle, other chronic diseases that could lead to diabetes as a complication, or heritage and genetics.
Out of this point, we can not consider risk factors as causes of diabetes, yet they lead to it in one way or another. Furthermore, these factors are variable according to each type as follows.
Type1 Risk Factors:
As we mentioned before, type 1 could be due to some damage that had hit the pancreas, which blocked the insulin effect.
Type1 risk factors are as follows:
– Family history and heritage reasons:
Having a family member with type 1 diabetes indicates that it could happen to you or another family member, and by a family member, we mean a father, mother, or sibling.
Previous pancreas damage:
If the pancreas has been subjected to any previous damage, it could be a risk factor for diabetes type1. This damage could be due to tumors, surgeries, inflammations, different types of infections, or even a previous incident causing direct damage to the organ.
Antibodies:
In some cases, some antibodies could be mistakenly attacking different body cells and organs, most probably due to various immunity diseases, which puts the pancreas in danger of being hit and damaged.
Physical stress:
Extreme physical stress could lead to diabetes type 1 in one way or another. This stress is due mainly to significant surgeries or severe infections, which could be a reason that affects the pancreas.
Viral infection:
Some viral infections could lead to type 1 diabetes as one of its complications.
Type2 Risk Factors
Both types could share the same risk factors and causes, but type 2 could have more flexibility to control and avoid it.
The main type2 risk factors are as follows:
Family history:
Similar to type 1, it could have some origins back generations, pointing to parents or siblings. The difference here is that if one of the family members has gone through the pre-diabetic phase, this is enough risk to consider. So, what’s the pre-diabetic stage? We’ll spread out a whole section to discuss it; keep reading.
Obesity:
Clearly, obesity has way more complications to mention, but type 2 diabetes can major these complications and comes on top of such list. Obesity could lead to glucose or sugar accumulation through the bloodstream leading to type 2 infection.
Hypertension:
High blood pressure is one of the most common chronic diseases all over the world, and it doesn’t stop by just its symptoms. It could lead to a diabetic influence at the end of the tunnel. Hypertension directly affects how blood reaches every body organ with the energy needed. In general, hypertension has a way more profound influence on our bodies.
Cholesterol level:
A leading risk factor is that we can not ignore good cholesterol levels in our bodies. In the case of low levels of high-density lipoproteins and high levels of triglycerides, you’ll risk having diabetes type2. You can check this article to learn more about cholesterol effects and complications.
Low physical activity:
If you’re not actively practicing some sport or at least doing any physical activity daily, you’re more likely to have type 2 diabetes. Yet, having any of the previously mentioned diseases is also related.
Age:
Something we don’t control aging. For diabetic influence, age is not a friend, as many studies showed a relation between diabetes type 2 and being over 45. During such age, many body organ jobs start to fall back gradually, including the pancreas.
Gestational diabetes:
A type and a risk factor at the same time. As we mentioned, it could last and cause type 2 diabetes for the mother. It happens mainly if the baby is born weighing more than 4 kg.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS):
Women with the such case could develop some diabetic influence and suffer from diabetes type2.
Heart diseases:
Previous heart attacks could lead to type 2 diabetes in one way or another.
Smoking:
Smoking is a general health abuse, and diabetes could also be related.
Gestational Diabetes Risk Factors
Similar to type 1 and type 2, gestational diabetes has its own risk factors.
As we previously mentioned, it’s more likely to be a temporary thing, yet it could lead to type 2 diabetes after.
Its risk factors could be mentioned as follows:
Family history:
If there’s a family history of pre-diabetic phase or even diabetes type 2, women are more likely to have gestational diabetes.
Weight:
Obesity or being overweight could be one of the gestational diabetes risk factors.
Age:
Many studies showed that women are more likely to have gestational diabetes if pregnancy happens at an age over 25.
All these risk factors lead us to question causes. Therefore, we will spread out the causes of diabetes in detail throughout the following lines.
Causes Of Diabetes
What are the main causes of diabetes?
Basically, we’re talking about a higher amount of glucose or sugar through our bloodstream than our body cells can contain.
Let’s go through causes according to each type.
Causes of Diabetes Type1:
Type 1 is an immunity disease, as immune cells attack the pancreas, leading to partially or totally blocking insulin.
Accordingly, various body cells couldn’t absorb sugar or glucose from the bloodstream, which causes a lack of energy.
Also, it could be due to genetic reasons, as some genes disorder related to insulin production could lead to this diabetic influence.
Not to mention how a viral infection could also affect insulin production and lead to type 1 diabetes.
Causes Of Diabetes Type2:
Talking about the causes of diabetes for type 2, we can find out that there’s some resistance developed against the insulin job inside our bodies.
Which directly affects the sugar levels in our bloodstream and leads to type 2 diabetes.
To complete the cycle of the causes of diabetes type 2, the pancreas cannot compensate for this sugar level spike.
Causes Of Gestational Diabetes
Causes of diabetes could vary, as we mentioned and proved, and here’s what could lead to gestational diabetes.
Due to some hormones that the placenta produces during pregnancy, which could stop the typical job of insulin, leading to diabetes type 2.
Pre-diabetic Phase
Before having diabetes type 2, there’s a pre-diabetic phase, where glucose levels are higher than average, yet, not high enough to call it diabetes type 2. And it has the exact causes of diabetes type 2.
Throughout the phase, body cells start showing partial insulin resistance, which blocks cells from absorbing sugar from the bloodstream. Accordingly, sugar levels get a higher grade, and if you don’t take any action to control it, it will eventually lead to type 2 diabetes. That’s why this phase is considered one of the causes of diabetes.
How long can the pre-diabetic phase last?
This phase duration could vary for many reasons, including how you deal with it and your lifestyle. However, many estimations point out that it could last for 3 to 6 years before it turns out to be one of the causes of diabetes type 2. Although, other estimations depict that it could last for almost 10 years.
It’s worth noting that this phase is considered pretty silent, meaning it has no apparent signs or symptoms that make you wonder and leads you to deal with it. Accordingly, it’s hard to be diagnosed, which explains why almost 80% of pre-diabetic patients would end up having diabetes type 2.
On the other hand, you can deal with such a phase efficiently and avoid it becoming one of the causes of diabetes. Simply, you can follow these instructions for your lifestyle:
– Drink enough amounts of water daily.
– Get rid of 5-7% of your current weight.
– 30 minutes of exercise or walking daily.
– Quit smoking right on.
Resources:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/7104-diabetes-mellitus-an-overview
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diabetes/
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/symptoms-causes
