Genes and family history: Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes can be due to both genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have linked mostgene mutations to a higher diabetes risk.  But several people with diabetes do have one or more of these mutations. If you have a family background  of type 2 diabetes, it may be difficult to figure out whether your diabetes is due to lifestyle factors or genetic susceptibility. Most likely it is due to both. However, don’t lose heart. That doesn’t mean that if your mother or father has or hadtype 2 diabetes, you’re guaranteed to develop , it means that you have a greater chance of developing type 2. Study  know that you can inherit a risk for type 2 diabetes, but it’s difficult to pinpoint which genes carry the risk.

Prediabetes is a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not as high as seen in diabetes. Familybackground of type 2 diabetes increases a person’s risk of diabetes. Further measurement  showed that the link between a family background  of diabetes and prediabetes risk was seen only in people who were not obese. Family health background  is an important risk factor for developing a number of serious diseases, including type 2 diabetes. The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) encourages all families to take advantage of family gatherings to share information about their health historybasically  when it comes to diabetes. The risk for a child of a parent with type 1 diabetes is lower if it is the motherrather than the fatherwho has diabetes. “If the father has it, the risk is about (1 in 10 )10 percent) that his child will develop type 1 diabetes the same as the risk to a sibling of an affected child,