It's true that being overweight is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, but your family history, age, and race are risk factors too. Learn about what causes type 2 diabetes, and how you can help lower your risk.
People often assume that if you're skinny, you're healthy — people only get diabetes if they're overweight. Right? Not necessarily. “Diabetes isn't related to how you look,” explains Misty Kosak, a dietitian and diabetes educator at Geisinger Community Medical Center.
In fact, obesity is believed to account for 80-85% of the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while recent research suggests that obese people are up to 80 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with a BMI of less than 22.
These are lean people with either full-fledged type 2 diabetes or some metabolic dysfunction, such as insulin resistance. You might even be surprised to learn that skinny people can and do get T2DM. They are rarely mentioned in the media, and there isn't much written about them in the scientific literature.
Being overweight or carrying excess body fat is a risk factor of type 2 diabetes, yet there are many other causes behind the condition. Someone of a healthy weight could actually be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Even Really Healthy People Are Prone to Diabetes: Here's What You Should Know. We often assume that just because a person is skinny, they're in perfect health. However, even healthy people can develop insulin resistance, a condition that leads to high blood sugar or diabetes.
“When the glucose doesn't arrive in your cells, your body thinks it's starving and finds a way to compensate. It creates energy by burning fat and muscle at a rapid pace. This causes unexplained weight loss,” explains Cotey.
If you don't eat, your blood sugar levels are lower and medication may drop them even more, which can lead to hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia can cause you to feel shaky, pass out, or even go into a coma. When you “break” your fast by eating, you may also be more likely to develop too-high blood sugar levels.
Some people have lost a substantial amount of weight and put their diabetes into remission through lifestyle and diet changes or by having weight loss surgery (called bariatric surgery). There is no such thing as a special diet for people with diabetes or those aiming or diabetes reversal.
There's more to why people get type 2 diabetes than you may know. Although lifestyle is a big part, so are family history, age, and race. Learn about what causes type 2 diabetes and how you can help lower your risk.
People With Diabetes Can Live Longer by Meeting Their Treatment Goals. Life expectancy can be increased by 3 years or in some cases as much as 10 years. At age 50, life expectancy- the number of years a person is expected to live- is 6 years shorter for people with type 2 diabetes than for people without it.
Studies have shown that becoming overweight is a major risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes. Today, roughly 30 percent of overweight people have the disease, and 85 percent of diabetics are overweight.
But that doesn't mean abdominal weight gain should be ignored. It can be an early sign of so-called "diabetic belly," a build-up of visceral fat in your abdomen which may be a symptom of type 2 diabetes and can increase your chances of developing other serious medical conditions.
You are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes if you are not physically active and are overweight or have obesity. Extra weight sometimes causes insulin resistance and is common in people with type 2 diabetes. The location of body fat also makes a difference.
The exact cause of most types of diabetes is unknown. In all cases, sugar builds up in the bloodstream. This is because the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes may be caused by a combination of genetic or environmental factors.
Insulin resistance leads to elevated fatty acids in the plasma, causing decreased glucose transport into the muscle cells, as well as increased fat breakdown, subsequently leading to elevated hepatic glucose production.
In one from 2011, people who were recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes returned their blood sugar levels to normal when they lost weight on a calorie-restrictive diet. In a 2016 follow-up study, people who had been diabetic for up to 10 years were able to reverse their condition when they lost about 33 pounds.
Pancreatic beta cells that do not produce sufficient insulin in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are not permanently damaged during the early stages of the disease and can be restored to normal function through the removal of excess fat in the cells, according to a study entitled “Remission of Type 2 Diabetes for Two ...
Start with a healthy diet
The one change that may have the biggest impact on your ability to manage or reverse type 2 diabetes is related to your diet. Reduce the amount of sugar and simple carbohydrates you eat and drink.
If you have type 2 diabetes, your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, foot problems, eye and kidney disease is increased. To reduce your risk of developing other serious health conditions, you may be advised to take other medicines, including: anti-hypertensive medicines to control high blood pressure.
Try to go 10–12 hours each night without eating, Sheth said. For instance, if you eat breakfast at 8:30 a.m. every morning, that means capping your nighttime meals and snacks between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. each night.
If severe, it can induce weakness, seizures, or even death. People with Type 2 diabetes are at increased risk for hypoglycemia—especially if they go long periods without eating—and this was one of the first dangers experts looked at when assessing the safety of intermittent fasting.
If you are struggling to get up in the morning; feeling a total lack of energy or 'fogginess' or not able to perform the tasks you normally do as simply too exhausted it may be that you actually are suffering from fatigue... and it could be a side effect of your diabetes.
Diabetes is associated with various health problems including decline in skeletal muscle mass. A research group revealed that elevation of blood sugar levels leads to muscle atrophy and that two proteins play key roles in this phenomenon.