Diabetes causes.
The precise causes of diabetes have not been completely identified  yet. However, it is clear that type 1 and type 2 diabetes have different etiology.
Statistics have given evidence that hereditary and environmental causes coexist quite often. Both of them may help in development of prediabetes and insulin resistance and trigger the onset of the signs and symptoms of the condition. Extensive laboratory studies are in progress and a lot of funds have been invested, since scientists are convinced that diabetes will be the disease of the century. At the moment, nearly 195 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes and the figure is expected to rise to 340 million by 2025 and to exceed the 700 million patients by 2050, if the disease spreads at the same rate. It is more than apparent that identifying and fully understanding the causative factors may lead to more effective prevention of diabetes mellitus.
Hereditary causes of diabetes.
It has been well acknowledged that hereditary factors play a key role in diabetes etiology. Insulin resistance tends to occur in families. However, genetic material on its own is not enough to cause the problem but definitely it is partly responsible. Cases with identical twins give good evidence about the hereditary nature of diabetes. It is well known that identical twins present the same structure of DNA. If one of them is diagnosed with diabetes, the other twin has 50-70% chances to present the disease, as well.
Statistics have shown that a person is very likely to suffer from type 1 diabetes, if risk factors for the disease are identified in both parents. The presence of inherited characteristics must occur more often in white people, since they seem to be more prone to type 1 diabetes. However, even in individuals, who have inherited the predisposition, type 1 diabetes mellitus seems to require additional environmental causes to develop.
There is a strong inheritable pattern for type 2 diabetes, as well. Extensive studies have shown that people with ancestors or relatives suffering from type 2 diabetes have pretty much increased chances of developing the disease. Ethnicity is very important cause in diabetes incidence. People of African, Mexican or Pima Indian origin are far more susceptible to type 2 diabetes.
Environmental causes of diabetes.
In numerous cases, people do not develop diabetes, despite their genetic background. Specialists have come to the conclusion that environmental factors are very important in diabetes etiology.
 Cold climate might be related to the onset of the disease. For instance, the occurrence of type 1 diabetes is higher in places with cold weather, rather than other areas being closer to equator. It is remarkable that type 1 diabetes is diagnosed more often in winter time.
Viral infections might be another causative factor. There is some speculation that viruses, which are not pathogenic for the main part of the population, can be a critical factor in some people and help the disease to appear. Of course, the virus is not the primary cause, since the affected person has to be prone to diabetes, because of genetic factors. The virus perhaps works as a trigger for the onset of the disease.
Lifestyle as causative factor of diabetes.
Sedentary lifestyle and excessive body weight may be two very important causes of diabetes. After all, diabetes along with cardiovascular disease is the most characteristic condition in developed countries. Sedentary life and diet high in saturated fats play a key role in development of both of the diseases.
Lack of exercise. Studies have shown that lack of adequate daily physical activity increases the chances by 8% for a person to suffer from type 2 diabetes at some stage of life. For people with a genetic predisposition the same percentage reaches the 20%. Muscles along with brain are prominent glucose consumers in our body. Lack of fitness makes our muscular system to decline in terms of size and functionality. This situation reduces a muscle’s ability to use glucose properly and can be a potential cause of insulin
resistance
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Excessive weight. Overweight and obesity can increase the risk for a person to get ill with diabetes.
Body mass index more than 27 makes the control of blood glucose difficult in diabetics.
Researchers believe that happens because high amounts of fat prevent muscles from metabolizing glucose properly and can cause or worsen the disease.
Metabolic syndrome is strongly related to diabetes. A person’s health state which is referred as metabolic syndrome includes the following characteristics.
Excess fat around the waist.
Increased level of bad cholesterol (LDL).
Low level of good cholesterol (HDL).
High total cholesterol.
Increased presence of triglycerides in the blood.
High blood pressure.
Apart from diabetes, metabolic syndrome can be a cause for other serious conditions including atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease and stroke.
Other causes of diabetes.
Although the following factors seem to play a significant role, the connecting causative element between them and diabetes is not known yet.
Stress. Studies have given evidence that prolonged stressful periods of time or of bad psychological condition may cause diabetes.
Age. Statistics show that type 2 diabetes is more common in individuals who are over the age of fifty.
Can type 1 diabetes be an autoimmune disease?
Some researches have given evince that type 1 diabetes may be of autoimmune nature. In young people with inherited susceptibility to diabetes, scientists traced certain types of auto-antibodies which may be related to the disease. Overtime, the majority of these people developed type 1 diabetes. Auto-antibodies are heavy-chained proteins produced in the body. The weird think is that they attack and destroy the person’s cells or prevent the proper function of them. The causes of the production and action of such proteins are unknown. Normally antibodies are produce by the immune system to attack and destroy harmful invaders such as viruses, bacteria or toxins and not our own body.
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