Adult-Onset Diabetes – Causes And Risk Factors
- Saturday, May 16, 2009, 1:31
- Diabetes, Health Care
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What causes Adult-onset diabetes?
The reasons for occurrence of adult-onset diabetes can be understood by the following glucose processing by the body.
In order to build your muscles/ other tissues in your body it is essential that you consume glucose because this is the primary energy source for your cells. The main sources for glucose are food and your liver. When your food is getting digested the sugar becomes part of your bloodstream and insulin assists in sugar entering the cells.
The human organ that is responsible for production of the insulin is the pancreas which is situated behind your stomach. The hormone insulin is secreted into your bloodstream during eating and this makes the sugar enter the cells in your body thereby reducing the sugar content in your bloodstream. Reduction in blood sugar automatically reduces insulin secretion from your pancreas.
The liver, on the other hand, acts as an accumulator of glucose and also a production device. Suppose you have not eaten food for sometime so the sugar levels in your bloodstream will be low; at this time the glucose stored in the liver gets released into your bloodstream to ensure that your glucose comes to normalcy.
In people affected by adult-onset diabetes the above processes does not work satisfactorily. The sugar is not moved to your cells but moved into your bloodstream. This can occur because of any one of the following reasons.
1. Pancreas is unable to produce sufficient quantity of insulin that can move this sugar into your cells.
2. There is resistance from your cells for accepting this movement.
Although the reason for this is unclear, it has been found that excess fat content in the body – mainly fat in the abdomen – is primarily responsible for this.
What are the risk factors responsible for adult-onset diabetes?
Many researches conducted on diabetes have not thrown any light on why certain people get adult-onset diabetes whereas others do not get affected by this. However, it has been established that the risk for diabetes increases because of the following reasons.
• Overweight – fatty tissues are responsible for preventing the cells becoming resistant to insulin; hence, being overweight is the prime reason for getting adult-onset diabetes.
• Lack of physical exercises – if you are inactive and perform hardly any exercises you will become overweight thereby making your cells insulation resistant.
• Heredity – the risk of getting adult-onset diabetes increases in case any of your parents or sibling has been affected by this.
• Race – People belonging to certain races such as blacks, American Indians, Asian Americans and Hispanics are more prone to develop adult-onset diabetes. However, the reasons for this have not been established.
• Age – people are susceptible for getting adult-onset diabetes as they grow old; in particular if they cross 45 years. At this age they perform less exercise and gain more weight.
• Prediabetes – this is a condition wherein the blood sugar level of the person concerned is more than normal but less than that of adult-onset diabetes. If this is not treated on time it will develop to adult-onset diabetes.
• Gestational diabetes – this is the type of diabetes women develop during pregnancy; if this is not attended to on time this could progress to adult-onset diabetes.
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