Is Diabetes a hereditary disease or it is more dependent on food and lifestyle?
Diabetes is a complex disease and various factors play the crucial role for its causation. Earlier it was thought that diabetes runs in families that means it is hereditary disease. Although, there is a genetic cause to the disorder. There are different types of diabetes, but no type of diabetes is genetic per se, but individual DNA may influence risk of developing it.
The answer is complex and depends on the type of diabetes and frequently other factors such as diet, lifestyle, and environment. For most people who have diabetes, it is not due to a straight genetic group of factors or to environmental ones, but rather it is a combination of both. People who have a family history of type 1 diabetes may be predisposed to developing it, the inheritance pattern in most cases is unclear.
In people with type 2 diabetes, they are more likely to have people in their family that also have diabetes, obesity, or other risk factors. But it’s hard to know if that influence is due to genes alone or a shared environment and lifestyle. Most often what people are sharing is not a genetic variation but could be their habitual or type of diet or a lack of access to opportunities for exercise. Similarly, it is applicable for gestational diabetes. Many women who develop the gestational diabetes in their pregnancy have at least one close family member, such as a parent or sibling, who has had gestational diabetes or type 2 diabetes. So diabetes is a multifactorial disorder which depend not only on hereditary but also food and lifestyle as well.
(Brand Desk Content)
