So how do you end up with a diagnosis of diabetes?
There are lots of reasons this can happen, but most of them are unknown. Here are a few known reasons:
- Your genetics have a lot to do with it. In other words, it could have passed down to you from your mom and dad and their moms and dads, and so on. I know that was my case.
- Your immune system could have something to do with it. Sometimes the things that fight off the bacteria and viruses turns on the body and attacks things it shouldn’t, like cells that produce insulin.
- Environmental factors could have something to do with it. Where you live, work, play… the air, the soil and even buildings and other structures could be a factor.
- What you eat and drink definitely has something to do with it. Eating and drinking a lot of sugary or high carbohydrate things could eventually wear down your system. Some folks’ systems wear down a little and others, like me, it wears down a lot. I definitely know that was my case. I mean I LOVE food! I love cookies, cakes, bread… every known carbohydrate!
- Sometimes hormones have something to do with it. Some women get what is called “gestational diabetes”. The hormones can cause the cells to reject the insulin, the pancreas can’t compensate resulting in sugar being dumped into the bloodstream. It usually goes away after the baby is born, but then it may return with other babies or later in life. So if this happens to you, it is perhaps an early warning sign to watch your sugars and carbs.
Of course, my or your particular diabetes could be one or a combination of any of those reasons or something unknown.
You can be overweight or underweight for any of this to happen, but when you start gaining weight around your abdomen (between your belly button and lower rib cage especially) as opposed to other areas, it is strongly linked to diabetes. Again, that is often the case, but not always. I can verify that as soon as I started putting on fat in that area, that my sugar numbers started to climb.
Follow these links for more information:
American Diabetes Association – Genetics of Diabetes
American Diabetes Association – Tools to Know Your Risk
Mayo Clinic – Causes of Diabetes
