Diabetes

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Obesity —  Excess weight increases body’s demand for insulin due to larger fat cells in obese people, especially with abdominal obesity. Unfortunately, Indians and Asians have genetically high degree of abdominal obesity than Westerners. Diabetes and obesity are so strongly linked that the physicians have coined a new combined term for describing these diseases as dibesity. Syndrome X or Insulin Resistance — This is a term to describe a cluster of symptoms, including high blood pressure, high triglycerides, decreased HDL (good cholesterol), increased LDL (bad cholesterol) and obesity (pot belly), which tend to appear together in some individuals and indicates a pre-disposition to diabetes and heart disease. Heredity/Family History — Blood relatives of people with diabetes have a high probability to develop diabetes than those who do not have it in the family. Sedentary Lifestyle — People with sedentary (inactive) lifestyle are more likely to have diabetes as compared to those who lead an active life. Stress — Stress causes an imbalance in the secretion of several hormones which disturb the body’s metabolism. The beta cells of the pancreas during stress do not secrete the necessary insulin into the system and some hormones released during stress may block the effect of insulin on the body cells, thus causing diabetes. Pancreatic Inefficiency ­– Refined foods, coffee, alcohol, smoking, nervous exhaustion, and some diseases of the endocrine glands that secrete hormones, allergy (eg. to dairy products) can reduce the efficiency of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin for helping to convert glucose into energy. Bad Diet — Excess consumption of junk foods, refined carbohydrates, sugar, animal products and nutritional deficiency can contribute to the development of diabetes. Breast Feeding — Giving babies solid food or milk before the age of 6-12 months can trigger insulin dependent Type I diabetes. Breast feeding increases the natural immunity. Gender — Both men and women have the same risk of developing diabetes till early childhood. After 30 years, women are at higher risk as opposed to men. Women who develop temporary (gestational) diabetes during pregnancy are also at a higher risk of developing Type II diabetes later. Age — The risk of diabetes increases with age, especially after 40 years, mainly because the number of beta cells in the pancreas, that produce insulin, decrease as age advances.