Are You at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes?
What is Diabetes?
- Diabetes is a condition in which there is a higher amount of sugar in the blood than there ought to be due to insulin resistance (when the body cannot use insulin effectively).
- Insulin is a hormone created in the pancreas that controls the level of glucose sugar in the blood and helps the cells absorb it. If you have diabetes your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or isn’t using it properly.
- Diabetes can cause damage to the body’s vital organs such as the kidneys or the liver.
- About 90% of the people who have diabetes have type 2 diabetes.
- Being overweight. This is the #1 risk factor – especially fat around the waist. Being overweight means you have a higher risk of insulin resistance because fat interferes with the body’s ability to use insulin; the more fatty tissue you have, the more resistant your cells are to insulin. You are at higher risk if the fat is around your waist.
- Sedentary lifestyle: Getting less than three days a week of exercise. Exercise lowers and stabilizes your weight, helps you use glucose as energy and makes cells more sensitive to insulin.
- Unhealthy eating: This kind of diet includes food that is high in unhealthy fats, eating too many simple carbohydrates and not getting enough fibre.
- High blood pressure and high cholesterol. Both are related to being overweight or obese and to eating a high fat diet. High blood pressure means 140/90 mmHg or higher. Abnormal cholesterol means your HDL (“good” cholesterol) is 35mg/dL or lower and your Triglyceride level is 250 mg/dL or higher.
- Being over 40: Risk increases with age because people are often more sedentary and they lose muscle mass and gain weight as they age. But they don’t have to; exercise can help you lose that midriff bulge and regain muscle mass no matter how old you are. If you are over 45 you should have a blood sugar (glucose) test done very three years – more often if you are at higher risk.
- Family history of diabetes: Having a diabetic parent, brother or sister.
- Gestational diabetes: If you developed diabetes during pregnancy
- Giving birth to a baby over 9 lbs.
- Ethnic background: You have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes if your family background is African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Asian American, or Pacific Islander.
- Metabolic syndrome: If you are obese with abdominal fat and have bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels, high blood pressure and insulin resistance you may have Metabolic Syndrome (also known as insulin resistance or Syndrome X), a pre-diabetic condition.
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome
- Acanthosis nigricans: This condition causes thicker, darker skin around the armpits or the neck.
Diabetes and November 14th:
November 14th is International Diabetes Day. It is also the 90th anniversary of the discovery of insulin (November 14, 1921) and the birth date of Sir Frederick Banting who discovered insulin along with Dr. Charles Best, Professor J.J.R Macleod and Dr. James Collip at the University of Toronto. Banting and Macleod went on to receive the Nobel Price for their work.