Type 1 diabetes symptoms might appear suddenly within a few weeks. Type 2 diabetes symptoms may occur gradually over several years and might be so minor that you might not notice them. Type 2 diabetes affects many persons who exhibit no symptoms. Some individuals don’t realize they have the condition until they start experiencing causes of diabetes related health issues, such as hazy vision or heart issues.
Diabetes symptoms include:
- increased urination and thirst
- increased appetite
- fatigue
- fuzzy vision
- tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
- wounds that never heal
- unaccounted-for weight loss
Why Does Type 1 Diabetes Develop?
When your immune system, the body’s defense against infection, assaults and kills the insulin-producing beta cells of your pancreas, type 1 diabetes develops. According to scientists, environmental triggers, including conditions and genetic predispositions, may bring on 1 diabetes. Studies like TrialNet attempt to identify the root causes of type 1 diabetes and potential treatments.
Why Does Type 2 Diabetes Occur?
The most prevalent kind of diabetes, type 2, is brought on by several genetic and lifestyle factors.
Obesity, Excess Weight, And Inactivity
If you are not physically active, overweight, or obese, you are more prone to acquire type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance may sometimes result from excess weight and is common in type 2 diabetics. Additionally, the distribution of body fat affects results. Type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and heart and blood vessel disease are all associated with excess abdominal fat. See whether you are at risk for type 2 diabetes based on your weight by using these Body Mass Index (BMI) charts.
Insulin Sensitivity
Insulin resistance, a disease in which muscle, liver, and fat cells do not utilize insulin properly, is often the first sign of type 2 diabetes. Your body thus requires extra insulin to facilitate glucose uptake into cells. To meet the increased demand, the pancreas first produces more insulin. Blood glucose levels increase due to the pancreas’ inability to produce adequate insulin over time.
Genetics And Ancestry
Similar to type 1 diabetes, having specific genes may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. These racial/ethnic groups are more likely to experience the illness, which tends to run in families:
- Black Americans
- Native Alaskans
- Indian Americans
- American Asians
- Hispanics/Latinos
- Hawaiian natives
- Caribbean Islanders
Genes may also make someone more likely to develop type 2 diabetes by making them more likely to be overweight or obese.
What Triggers Pregnancy-Related Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes, a kind of diabetes that manifests during pregnancy, is thought by scientists to be brought on by pregnancy’s hormonal changes as well as hereditary and environmental factors.
Insulin Sensitivity
All women have insulin resistance in late pregnancy, which results from hormones the placenta produces. However, some pregnant women cannot generate enough insulin to reverse insulin resistance. Insufficient insulin production by the pancreas leads to gestational diabetes.
Weight gain is related to gestational diabetes, much as type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance may already exist in pregnant women who are obese or overweight. Overeating when pregnant could also be a contributing issue.
Genetics And Ancestry
Gestational diabetes is more likely to occur in women with a family history of the disease, suggesting that genes may be involved. The fact that the condition affects African Americans, American Indians, Asians, and Hispanics/Latinos more often may also be due to genes.
What Else May Result In Diabetes?
Diabetes may also be brought on by some medications, other illnesses, pancreatic injury, and genetic changes, according to the NIH.
Genetic Changes
Monogenic diabetes is brought on by alterations, or mutations, in only one gene. These alterations are often handed down via families, but sometimes, a gene mutation occurs randomly. By reducing the pancreas’ capacity to produce insulin, most of these gene abnormalities lead to diabetes. Neonatal diabetes and maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) are the two most prevalent forms of monogenic diabetes. In the first six months of life, newborns might develop diabetes. Doctors often identify MODY in adolescence or the early stages of adulthood. However, this does happen sometimes.
The pancreas develops scarring due to the thick mucus of cystic fibrosis (NIH external link). The pancreas may be unable to produce enough insulin due to this scarring.
The body stores too much iron as a result of hemochromatosis. Iron may accumulate in the body and harm the pancreas and other organs if the condition is not address.
Hormonal Conditions
The body overproduces some hormones due to several hormonal illnesses, which may occasionally lead to insulin resistance and causes of diabetes.
The condition known as Cushing’s syndrome is brought on by an overproduction of cortisol, sometimes known as the “stress hormone.”
When the body creates an excessive amount of growth hormone, acromegaly results.
When the thyroid gland generates too much thyroid hormone, hyperthyroidism develops.
Removal Or Harm To The Pancreas
Trauma, pancreatic cancer, and pancreatitis may all damage beta cells or reduce their capacity to create insulin, which leads to causes of diabetes. Diabetes will develop if the injure pancreas is remove since the beta cells would have been lost.
Medicines
Some medications can potentially damage beta cells or impair insulin’s function. These consist of
- vitamin B3 subtype niacin
- Certain diuretics, commonly known as water tablets
- anti-seizure medications
- psychiatric medication
- medication for the treatment of HIV (NIH external link)
- pentamidine, a medication used to treat a particular kind of pneumonia outside the link
- Glucocorticoids, drugs used to treat inflammatory conditions, include ulcerative colitis, lupus, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis (source: NIH external link)
Anti-rejection drugs are use to lessen the likelihood that the body may reject a transplant organ.
Statins, which lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels, may marginally raise your risk of developing causes of diabetes. Statins, however, protect against heart disease and stroke. For this reason, the substantial advantages of taking statins exceed the minuscule possibility of developing causes of diabetes.
Speak with your doctor if you take any of these medications and are worry about their adverse effects.