You can't "catch" diabetes. And, you don’t get diabetes from eating sweets. So how do you get diabetes, you ask? Well, lucky for you, you’ve come to the right place for answers. 

Heredity: Type 1 and Type 2

Heredity plays a significant part in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. If one of your parents has Type 2 diabetes, the risk is 10-15 percent that you will have it. If both parents have Type 2 diabetes, the risk increases to 50 percent. With Type 1 diabetes if one parent has it, the risk is 2-5 percent. And, if both parents have Type 1, the risk is 10-25 percent.

The most common cause of Type 2 diabetes is being overweight. In fact, nearly 80-90 percent of people are overweight when diagnosed. If you are overweight, cells in your body become more resistant to insulin because receptors (which are the “keyholes” for the insulin “keys”) get lost as cells get bigger. Also the larger cells become, the more energy they require. Since more insulin is needed, there is a greater risk of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is also more common with increasing age. But age alone is not a factor.

Some ethnic groups are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes: Native Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Pacific Islander and African-Americans.

Type 1 diabetes may be caused from an immune response. For an unknown reason, the body develops antibodies against the islet cells in the pancreas. These antibodies attack the islet cells, so the pancreas can no longer make insulin.

Trauma: Type 1 and Type 2

Diabetes can be caused by an injury to the pancreas such as an infection, a tumor or trauma.

What are the Symptoms

Copyright 2006 Medicine Shoppe International, a Cardinal Health company. All rights reserved.

These materials were adapted from Life with Diabetes: A Series of Teaching Outlines, American Diabetes Association, 2000, Diabetes Care, Volume 27, Supplement 1, January 2004 and Diabetes Forecast, January 2006. Byetta package label., and Symlin package label.