Causes of diabetes mellitus, from heredity to lifestyle

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that interferes with the body's ability to process blood sugar into energy. All types of diabetes, be it type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes have serious effects on the body. However, do you know what causes diabetes mellitus, aka diabetes? Check out the following reviews.

Causes of diabetes mellitus that need to be watched out

Diabetes mellitus occurs when the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood is too high. This condition occurs when the amount of the hormone insulin in the body is not sufficient to convert glucose into energy. As a result, glucose stays in the blood. Body cells that are resistant to insulin, or insulin resistance, also cause diabetes.

If left untreated, you can experience complications of diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus can be caused by various things, ranging from heredity, environmental influences to an unhealthy lifestyle.

1. Genetic factors

One of the causes of diabetes mellitus that cannot be avoided is genetic factors. That is why, diabetes is often called a hereditary disease. However, don't worry yet, being a descendant of a diabetic does not mean you will get it anyway.

Genetic factors do make a person have a greater risk of developing diabetes. Various studies have shown that a child's risk of developing diabetes is greater when the mother has this disease as well. If both parents have diabetes, the risk is even greater, reaching around 50 percent.

According to the American Diabetes Association, type 2 diabetes mellitus has a very strong association with family history and heredity, compared to type 1 diabetes.

Experts suspect that there is a special gene that causes diabetes mellitus that can be passed from parents to future generations. Unfortunately, experts are still difficult to determine which gene causes this diabetes.

2. Age factor

Apart from genetics, the age factor can also be one of the reasons you are at risk of developing diabetes.

As you get older, your risk of developing diabetes will increase. Actually, age is not only a cause of diabetes, but also various other chronic diseases, such as heart disease and stroke.

This can occur because of various diseases, including diabetes, and age is indeed related to one another. As you get older, your body's functions will also decrease, including the way your body processes sugar in the blood. As a result, this kind of disease is found in many older people.

In addition to decreasing body functions, age also causes body resistance to decrease. This can make it easier for infection to occur in certain organs that are responsible for regulating normal blood sugar levels.

Factors that cause diabetes mellitus that attack over time have made doctors recommend that patients aged 45 years or over take diabetes screening.

3. Autoimmune

Age is indeed a risk factor for diabetes mellitus. However, children and adolescents can also develop diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes in young people, due to the loss of the body's ability to produce the hormone insulin.

The cause of diabetes in children is usually an autoimmune condition that causes the body's immune system to attack and damage cells in the pancreas, the organ where insulin is formed.

Damage to the cells of the pancreas causes this organ to not produce enough of the hormone insulin or to stop producing this hormone completely.

It is not certain what causes this autoimmune problem. However, researchers suspect certain viral infections trigger the immune system to overreact and damage healthy cells in the body.

4. Insulin resistance

The combination of heredity and poor lifestyle can cause insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is a condition when the body's cells do not respond to insulin properly, aka "immune". In fact, insulin is responsible for helping the body's cells absorb glucose in the blood. As a result, the body can no longer absorb the sugar in the blood to convert it into energy.

This condition makes blood sugar levels higher and causes diabetes.

You may be producing enough of the hormone insulin to get glucose into the body's cells. However, your body does not necessarily "recognize" insulin correctly so that sugar continues to accumulate in the blood.

If this condition is allowed to continue, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes will be even higher. So, it can be concluded that the occurrence of insulin resistance is the cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

5. Certain medical conditions

There are many causes of diabetes mellitus that you might not have thought before. In some cases the emergence of diabetes can be triggered by certain diseases, such as:

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): the main cause of PCOS is obesity which is closely related to insulin resistance and diabetes. If you already have insulin resistance, you are at higher risk of having prediabetes.
Pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas: this organ is responsible for producing the hormone insulin whose function is to keep blood sugar normal.
Cushing's Syndrome: conditions for increased production of the hormone cortisol which will increase blood glucose levels.
Glucagonoma: this disease can be a cause of diabetes mellitus because the body cannot produce enough insulin.

Lifestyle risk factors for diabetes

So far, most people suspect that the habit that is the main cause of diabetes, namely consuming mostly sugar.

In fact, not only that, there are also various daily habits that are also risk factors for diabetes, such as:

1. Eat lots of sugar

Sweet foods, like dessert it is indeed a type of food that is very difficult to resist. However, you have to be careful. If consumed in excess for a long time, sweet foods can be a cause of diabetes mellitus.

Not only is it a risk factor for diabetes, a diet high in sugar can also have an impact on many other health problems, such as weight gain that leads to obesity.

Many studies have shown that a diet high in sugar is a major risk factor for diabetes and obesity.

Even though eating too much sweet food is the cause of diabetes mellitus, it does not mean that this causes you to be one hundred percent anti-sugar. You can still eat sweet foods because after all the body needs sugar for energy intake. The key is one, limit your daily sugar intake.

By planning and a healthy lifestyle, you can still eat sweet foods that are safe for blood sugar without fear of blood sugar levels soaring.

2. Lazy motion

Eating excessive sweet food plus lazy movement, aka a sedentary lifestyle, can be the cause of diabetes Advances in technology make it easier for humans to do various things, but also reduce physical activity which can have an impact on body health.

Slowly but surely, as your body moves less and less you are at greater risk of developing insulin resistance. This condition is a common cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Moreover, if this lifestyle is combined with a bad diet and unhealthy habits, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. Diabetes will strike you faster.

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, WHO, sedentari lifestyle is one of the top 10 causes of diabetes death in the world, one of which is due to diabetes mellitus which leads to complications.

3. Being overweight

Being overweight or obese is also a cause that increases the risk of diabetes mellitus, compared to healthy people. In fact, the American Diabetes Association says that obesity can increase the risk of diabetes mellitus by 80%.

This risk factor for diabetes causes changes in the body's metabolism which results in cells in the body unable to respond to insulin properly. As a result, the body is less sensitive to insulin, resulting in insulin resistance.

Well, insulin resistance is ultimately the cause of diabetes mellitus. The reason is, this condition makes glucose accumulate in the blood.

4. Use certain drugs

Medicines that are taken to treat various health problems that you are experiencing may be able to affect blood sugar levels, which in turn can be a risk factor for diabetes mellitus. Especially if you have a history of diabetes or are already diabetic.

According to the UIC Center, several types of drugs can cause diabetes risk, including:

Steroids
Statins
Diuretic drugs, especially thiazide diuretics
Beta-blockers
Pentamidine
Inhibitor prosthesis
Some over-the-counter medicines are in syrup form and contain a lot of sugar

If you are taking one or more drugs that trigger these blood sugar levels, it is important to ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of the drug.

5. Lack of fluids

Lack of fluids can be the cause of various health problems ranging from kidney disease, heart disease, and even diabetes. Unfortunately, not many know that dehydration and diabetes are related to one another.

A report inside Journal of Diabetes Care found that low fluid intake can lead to increased blood sugar, which can lead to diabetes.

Experts theorize that this is due to an increase in the hormone vasopressin, which causes the kidneys to retain water and the liver to produce blood sugar. This condition has the potential to affect the body's ability to regulate the hormone insulin over time.

Meanwhile, those of you who have high blood sugar levels due to dehydration can exacerbate this condition.

Dehydration can cause your blood pressure to rise and your body to produce stress hormones, both of which can trigger a drastic increase in blood sugar (hyperglycemia). As a result, diabetes symptoms get worse or even cause complications.

6. Eating too much salt

Sweet foods are not the only cause of diabetes. Eating foods high in salt can also trigger diabetes mellitus. Why?

Eating too much salt can increase the risk of obesity and hypertension, aka high blood pressure. Well, when you have hypertension, your risk for diabetes is also higher.

In addition, salt can also cause insulin resistance. Based on the Diabetologia study conducted by researchers from Sweden and Finland, every 1,000 mg additional sodium outside the safe limit of salt consumption increases the risk of diabetes by 43 percent.

Try not to consume more than 5 grams or one teaspoon of salt per day. Also follow a healthy diet with a special diet for diabetes.

7. Use mouthwash

You might not think that mouthwash is a risk factor for diabetes mellitus. According to research published in British Dental Journal In 2018, the habit of using mouthwash twice a day was reported to increase the risk of diabetes by 50 percent, rather than gargling just once a day.

Other research also states that mouthwash can cause diabetes mellitus to get worse. This is because the chemicals in mouthwash, besides killing the bacteria that cause gingivitis, can also destroy the good bacteria in the mouth which are important to form nitric monoxide.

Nitric monoxide is needed by the body to help regulate insulin production. Now, when this bacterial collection dies, the body's work in producing insulin and regulating blood sugar levels is disrupted. This can lead to insulin resistance, which is one of the factors causing diabetes mellitus.

For that, you must use mouthwash wisely, so that the benefits do not turn into an increased risk factor for diabetes.

8. A low-gluten diet

For some people, such as those with Celiac disease, gluten can cause negative reactions in the body. Gluten is a type of protein that is commonly found in wheat, oats, and starchy foods like bread.

The American Heart Association, which studied 200,000 adults, found that people who regularly consume gluten are 13% safer from diabetes risk than those who deliberately avoid it.

This is because people who avoid gluten tend to eat less fiber-rich whole grains. In fact, fiber can increase insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammation, and lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Even if you have various risk factors for the causes above, it does not mean that you have diabetes. However, knowing the cause of diabetes can help you prevent this disease so that you can live a healthier life.