Diabetes has become a global health threat. With the improvement of people’s living standard in China, changes in dietary structure and lifestyle have led to a rapid increase in diseases related to disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism. Among them, the diabetic population has approached 100 million and the pre-diabetic population is about 200 million.
Diabetes can be divided into 2 types: type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. the onset of type 1 diabetes, which is mostly concentrated in adolescence, is a disease with a clear genetic predisposition. Existing research has identified more than 20 genes associated with type 1 diabetes, indicating that type 1 diabetes is highly heritable.
There are many people have questions that whether type 2 diabetes is a hereditary disease, to see today’s content, up knowledge.
1, type 2 diabetes is not a genetic disease The onset of type 2 diabetes, mostly after middle age, the majority of patients have obvious bad habits, is not a genetic disease in the traditional sense, and there is no fixed genetic gene. Diabetes itself is not inherited, what is inherited is the susceptibility to diabetes. From a modern medical point of view, children of diabetic patients simply inherit certain genes that are predisposing to diabetes. In other words, it is possible to develop the disease in a certain environment, while avoiding this environment, it is possible not to develop the disease.
2. Type 2 diabetes has a genetic predisposition We know that diabetes is caused by a complex set of risk factors, such as body mass index, which all have a different impact on the occurrence of diabetes in different pedigree groups. These findings expand the number of genetic variants associated with diabetes and underscore the importance of studying different pedigrees.
Diabetes is indeed a disease with a genetic predisposition. The results of a large study from Denmark suggest that if an immediate family member (parent, half-sibling) has type 2 diabetes, your risk of developing the disease may be up to 2.34 times that of someone with no family history. And when there are two immediate family members with diabetes in the family, this risk can skyrocket directly to four times.
3. Type 2 diabetes has family aggregation Type 2 diabetes has strong family aggregation, with the prevalence of diabetic relatives being 4 to 8 times higher than that of non-diabetic relatives. The heritability of type 2 diabetes in Chinese people is 51.2%~73.8%, with a stronger genetic tendency.
4. Environmental influences are most important for type 2 diabetes It is now accepted that type 2 diabetes is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. For example, children of parents with type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop the disease than children without a family history of diabetes, but children do not necessarily develop diabetes, and the eventual onset of the disease is also related to diet and exercise and other acquired factors. For example, high-calorie diet, lack of exercise, and obesity, so type 2 diabetes is still mainly triggered by poor lifestyles.
Urbanization, aging, increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity, and genetic susceptibility of Chinese people are the four main reasons for the dramatic increase of diabetes in China. Therefore, if you have a family history of diabetes, you should start lifestyle intervention as early as possible to prevent yourself from developing diabetes; and if your family members do not have diabetes, you should not take it lightly, because diabetes-related factors can be more than just a genetic predisposition! It is recommended that you eat a low-sugar, low-fat, low-calorie diet, keep your main meals to 80% full, eat more vegetables, and review your fasting and post-meal glucose regularly. Strengthen physical exercise to enhance the immunity of the body.