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Type 1 And 2 Diabetes Causes

August 26, 2007 by Max Peykar

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Diabetes is caused when the pancreas does not produce enough or absolutely no insulin at all. Diabetes can also be caused when the insulin produced is ineffective.

Diabetes can be of three kinds. The type1 diabetes, the type 2 diabetes and the gestational diabetes. The causes of diabetes in these three vary moderately. Let us look into their causes in detail.

The first type, that is the type 1 diabetes is said to be caused when the cells in one’s pancreas tend to get damaged, which causes it to have great insulin deficiency. This is believed to be a result of the so called autoimmune reaction, when your body destroys the cells itself.

This reaction may be caused due to bacterial infections, exposure to chemicals that are food borne, reaction of certain viruses and intake of cow’s milk during young infancy. However, these type 1 diabetes causes are just hypotheses, and not yet medically proved as such.

The next type of diabetes, that is the type 2 diabetes may be caused because of insulin resistance (failure of certain cells in the body to react to insulin), which causes over production of insulin, thus exhausting the pancreatic insulin producing cells. The type 2 diabetes causes may also include lack of sufficient insulin in the body or manufacture of inefficient insulin. These are usually caused with the increase in one’s age, too much of physical inactivity, or obesity.

Causes of gestational diabetes are not very well known. However, it is thought to be caused when during pregnancy the production of certain hormones blocks the functioning of insulin. What causes diabetes in this case is incapability of the mother’s body in producing enough of extra insulin to counteract this effect.

It is usually noticed that when the mother is over thirty five years of age, is obese, has had a stillbirth in her late pregnancy previously, or had given birth to an abnormal baby or a large baby this type of diabetes sets in.

One the most widespread causes of diabetes, that is common for all three types of diabetes is the patients hereditary.

In type 1 diabetes if both the parents have diabetes, then there are high chances of the children carrying the disease as well. Hereditary also acts as a diabetes cause in twin children, when one child has type 1 diabetes. The chances of the other child carrying the disease increases in this case by up to 40-50%.

It is said that if both the parents suffer from type 2 diabetes then it is almost certain that all their children will suffer from diabetes. Also, in case of twin children, if one of the twins suffers from type 2 diabetes, then almost certainly the other child will also carry the disease.

Hereditary is also a major cause of the gestational diabetes, when the parents suffer from it. What causes diabetes is the fact that the offspring may carry the problem in his or her genes.