Diabetes, type 2
- Fact: A whopping 29 percent of women and 25 percent of men in the United States will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.
- Proportion of risk that’s in your genes: 64 percent.
- What you can do: Knowing from a genetic test whether you have a genetic predisposition for the disease may spur you to make lifestyle changes to reduce your risk. Exercising, eating right, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, and losing weight if you’re overweight can help control the disease – or prevent it altogether.
- Did you know? Even though type 2 diabetes is often preventable, it is becoming more and more prevalent, largely because of the obesity epidemic.
Type 2 diabetes used to be known as adult-onset diabetes. Now, however, as the population eats more, exercises less – and continues to gain weight – the potentially fatal disease is on the rise in younger people too, including children. This chronic condition affects the way your body metabolizes sugar, or glucose, its main source of fuel. If left uncontrolled, diabetes can damage your heart, eyes, kidneys, feet and nerves.
About 21 million Americans, or 7 percent of the population, currently have type 2 diabetes, but researchers anticipate that number will grow.
Having a number of genetic variants, or risk markers, can increase your chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Many risk markers for the disease have been discovered, but each has only a small impact on its own. In combination, though, they can set the stage for a person to develop the condition, unless preventive measures are taken. Our gene test gauges whether you have an increased genetic risk of diabetes.
Knowing that your genes may have predisposed you to developing type 2 diabetes can help you and your doctor take steps now to make a major improvement in your health.
While there is no cure for the disease, there are many things you can do to prevent diabetes. And if you already have the health condition, there’s a lot you can do to manage it. When diet and exercise aren’t enough to control diabetes, doctors can prescribe medications or insulin therapy to help manage your blood sugar.
