Just confused.. Is one person prone to diabetes just because they eat Sweets? Would it be genetic? At what age should one start testing for the same? I’m very confused because I love to eat Ice Creams but every post I see on social media regarding sweets, Everyone keeps commenting Welcome Diabetes. I’m 20M for reference.
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There are two main types of diabetes.
Your pancreas creates a hormone called insulin, and your body uses insulin to regulate the level of glucose in your bloodstream.
Type One diabetics are unable to produce their own insulin, because their own immune system destroyed the part of their pancreas that produces insulin. There’s no cure for this. Type one diabetics need to give themselves insulin every single day for the rest of their lives.
Type Two diabetics are unable to produce enough insulin to manage their glucose. They may need to take insulin, or they may need to take medicine that helps their body produce more insulin or absorb their insulin better. It has some correlations to lifestyle, especially obesity, which is why some people make jokes that eating sweets will give you diabetes.
There are cells in your pancreas that produce insulin, a hormone that helps your body regulate how much sugar your cells take in. Not being able to produce enough insulin is what causes diabetes.
Some people have a genetic disorder where these cells don’t function properly. This is type 1 diabetes.
These cells can also begin to have problems due to factors like obesity and this causes diabetes later in life. This is type 2 diabetes.
Basically, eating like total garbage and not exercising can lead to type 2 diabetes.
If you are not producing insulin or are developing an insulin resistance then you have diabetes. People who are overweight have a higher potential to become insulin resistant or to not produce enough insulin to be effective in removing the sugar in their blood.
If you have an access of sugar building up inside of your body it starts to destroy your organs.
So diabetes is one of those things where the worse it gets the worse it gets.
The more overweight you become or the more inactive to become the higher your resistance to insulin becomes the more likely you were to have sugars built inside your system the more likely you are to destroy your internal organs.
When you eat a lot of refined carbohydrates, like sweets, bread, processed foods, for a long time, your body is in a constant state of trying to fight high blood sugar. Carbs that are processed are absorbed more quickly, which causes your blood sugar to spike immediately after eating. Your body tries to lower your blood sugar by releasing insulin, but after a long time of constantly producing insulin, your cells become desensitized to it. So since insulin doesn’t work as well, your blood sugar stays high. In the early stages of Type II diabetes, you can take oral anti-diabetic drugs, but if you don’t control your diet to correct the problem, they will eventually stop working. Your body will stop producing insulin, and you will need to take insulin for the rest of your life. Once your pancreas stops producing insulin, it won’t ever turn back on.
There is a genetic component to it, if you have family that develop type II diabetes you are at greater risk of developing it yourself, but it is a disease mostly caused by modifiable risk factors. If you keep your weight down, and control yourself around carbs, you will most likely be able to avoid it. Exercise also helps with insulin resistance. If you exercise regularly, you are training your muscle cells to use glucose (blood sugar), so when you aren’t exercising they will respond to insulin (the stuff that brings glucose into the cells) more easily.
The test that doctors use to monitor your risk for diabetes is called A1C. It is a blood test that is usually done once a year to track your blood sugar levels over the span of three months. If you get an A1C that is higher than the normal range, but not yet in the diabetic range, they will monitor you more closely, and ask you to start making lifestyle changes.
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