Dear all,
AT Diabetes Management Centre in Nairobi, prevention is our key focus, high risk patients are of our utmost concern. Type 2 Diabetes is the commonest form of diabetes making up to 80% of all cases. Type 2 Diabetes is largely related to lifestyle and therefore can be prevented. First though, you need to understand if you are at high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes or not.
So how do you know if you have a high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes?
The following short tick list will help you determine that. Knowing ones’ risk enables one to make the necessary lifestyle changes to lower your risk.
1. Men- being male has been shown to have a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. Many theories are available but two that I truly work with are men rarely go for medical checks and therefore get diagnosed late. Secondly men tend to store fat around their belly, and this fat is directly associated with both risk of Diabetes and heart disease.
2. Gestational Diabetes- gestational diabetes is when a pregnant lady who was not diabetic before, develops diabetes during pregnancy and then it disappears after delivery. These women have a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes later in life. Studies have shown that babies born from such pregnancies also have a higher risk.
3. Family history- if any of your 1st degree relatives like mom/dad has Type 2 Diabetes, it puts you at a 50% risk of developing the same. This risk increases as more members of your family are diabetic.
4. Hypertension- patients with high blood pressure have a higher risk of also developing Type 2 Diabetes.
5. Age- we all lose 3-4% of our beta cell (cells that produce insulin) function each year. Due to this normal physiology, the longer you live the higher the risk.
6. Ethnicity- race plays a big role in several diseases. In diabetes, black Americans and Asians have been shown to have a higher risk of diabetes compared to white counterparts. In Kenya, a small study done a while back showed a higher prevalence of Diabetes in Central province.
7. Weight gain- secondary to both unhealthy eating and inactivity is one of the commonest causes/risks of developing Type 2 Diabetes.
I hope the above has shed light on some of the risks and we will all benefit from this and learn to live healthier more active lives.
Find below a link to the American Diabetes Association Type 2 Diabetes risk assessment tool, feel free to do it and get a step closer to knowing your health status.
http://www.diabetes.org/are-you-at-risk/diabetes-risk-test/referrer=https://www.google.com/
And remember;
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