I’m aware that if you have a first-blood relative who has been diagnosed with diabetes, your own risk goes up, but what if that one relative is also a family anomaly?
Not asking for medical advice, just a clarifications on actual risk in a case such as the following.
My aunt was recently diagnosed with Type II diabetes, she is in her early to mid-70s. Now she is telling my cousin to get her blood checked regularly because my cousin’s risk is “so high, so high!”. But my aunt seems to be quite a family anomaly and her lifestyle radically contrasts the rest of the family’s.
She is Category I Obese, has lived a very, VERY sendentary lifestyle for the past 40 years, and her diet has always been crap. e.g. breakfast would be a sugary cinnamon bun, all foods are high in carbohydrates, lots of yo-yo dieting, rarely would she eat fresh vegetables etc. She has high cholesterol high blood pressure too. The only particularly healthy aspect of her life is that she doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol.
No one else in our family, and extended families, has ever been diagnosed with diabetes. Not one person on either side of my cousin’s family, going back generations, has ever been diagnosed with diabetes, any other metabolic disorder, or heart condition, except my aunt.
So in a case such as this, does my aunt’s diagnosis actually mean my cousin is realistically at a higher risk? It seems to me, that my aunt’s diabetes is the exception in the family.
Your aunt had comparatively very late onset of Type II diabetes after a lifestyle that would lead most people predisposed to develop it in their 40s or 50s. All in all, I’d say that she was remarkably resistant to developing it.
That, however, is no guarantee. Your cousin should, on his/her own, get his blood sugar checked once to determine what range he possesses. The doctor who orders the test can give him a better idea of how often to get it checked after that. Myself, I get checked every year, but then I have a truly lousy family history, and a hormonal disorder that seriously predisposes me to developing Type II diabetes.
I suspect your aunt is making a big deal out of this because she’d like to think there’s a genetic component to her diagnosis, thus absolving her of her responsibility for appropriate diet and exercise.
Just like heart disease, diabetes is not 100% genetic. While some individuals are predisposed to the condition based on their genetic background, there are several other risk factors that also come into play, including obesity, old age and lack of physical activity.
Based on what you’ve just described, it’s quite likely that your aunt’s lifestyle heavily contributed to her diagnosis given that she fits the profile for high-risk to a T.
There is some evidence that having a close relative with diabetes can increase someone’s odds of also developing the disease, so you aunt is correct in warning your coz to be careful. However, as long as your coz watches what he/she eats and leads an active life, the risks aren’t nearly as high as if he/she was walking down the same path as mumsy dearest.
I suspect my aunt is making a big deal for the same reason.
FWIW, my cousin is unconcerned. She is a biathelete who works out every day except Fridays. She is also a vegetarian with a carefully monitiored diet. Par for the course for her is to have her blood checked once a year to check hemoglobin, B12, glucose level etc. because she wants to be sure her dietary restrictions aren’t interfering with her athletic performance. (I did the same in college when my vegetarianism was very strict.)
I just had a serious case of :dubious: at my aunt’s claims that other family members were higher risk. She’s been canvassing all her siblings too, practically suggesting they’re about to drop dead from undiagnosed diabetes. She likes to be an alarmist that way.
ETA: Her siblings are all over 65 and a bit overweight, so a diabetes check has been standard op for their regular check-ups anyway. Aside from some poopy cholesterol levels, the three siblings are all in great shape.
I was actually just reading an article about the huge increase in diabetes in the U.S. Latin American population. It seems that a good portion of he risk going up from having a close relative with the disease may have more to do with sociological factors rather than genetic ones (although genetic still play a role).
e.g./ Children learning high-risk lifestyle habits at an earlier age from their parents, which is contributing to a soaring obesity rate in younger and younger segments of that community, and corresponding earlier onsets of Type II diabetes.
Of our fairly large extended family, my mother was the first to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She was petite (80 lbs.), always ate a healthy diet, was physically active, and the last person you’d think would be diabetic. Many of her siblings were overweight, sedentary, ate poor diets, etc.
When she was diagnosed, she didn’t believe it and went for a second opinion. Nobody could believe it. But in the following years, more family members were diagnosed, including my brother and me and several of our cousins. Her oldest sister, the most obese and sedentary, who ate nothing but junk food, lived well into her 90s without becoming diabetic.
So it’s a crap shoot. Do what you can to be healthy, that’s all you can do.
Oh sure, in retrospect. If you know that it runs in your family, obviously there are things you can do to bring the odds down. But you don’t always know ahead of time, especially if you’re the first diagnosed. Some people get it, regardless of their precautions, and others don’t, regardless of their risk factors. Even the most knowledgeable medical authorities aren’t always sure why some people get it and others don’t.