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Genetics and Type 2 Diabetes

4K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  foxl 
There is a strong consensus among the medical community that genetics play a significant role in why people become type 2 diabetics. Type 2 diabetes appears mainly in the middle age normally after the age 40. (Nowadays, many young people, some even in their teens are diagnosed type 2 but it is still an exception to the rule.) Why is it that the genes responsible for type 2 diabetes choose to "express" themselves mainly after age 40?

Regards,
Rad
Do they, or do they just get diagnosed then? I would suspect that weight gain and predictable "slowing of metabolism" have something to do with it. Toss in a decline in beta cell population and there you have it.
 
goldengirl, I had to dig to find my family history! The evidence was a little less direct, and still points to a combination of genes.

1) paternal uncle had thyroid disease and died in his 40's of a heart attack.

2) paternal grandmother had enormous babies. Lived to be 86, with Alz ... and had rheumatoid arthritis.

3) maternal grandfather died of a heart attack at 49.

4) maternal great-uncle was diabetic, in his 60's -- oral meds only.

5) maternal great-grandmother had "pernicious anemia," in the 1920's, and DIED of it.

So there is a relatively vague and distant evidence of CVD, and also of autoimmune disease. Maybe it is all those things, combined, in my case?

Both my parents died with Alz, my father in his late 70's, my moher at 86, and my mother and my brother have been medicated for HTN.
 
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