The scientific consensus is that people have genetic predisposition to Type 2 diabetes, as it tends to run in families, but environment also has a significant role in triggering this condition, and apparently triggering genes to change their behaviors. However, this increased risk does not necessarily mean you will develop Type 2 diabetes; it only means that you are susceptible to it, but can beat it by reducing lifestyle and environmental risk factors.

A Swedish study trying to research on Clinical risk factors, DNA variants, and the development of type 2 diabetes found that “compared with clinical risk factors alone, common genetic variants associated with the risk of diabetes had a small effect on the ability to predict the future development of type 2 diabetes.

But, there is growing evidence that epigenetics plays a role in the way genes interact with the environment. There are increasing signs that epigenetics plays a role in the development of Type 2 Diabetes, and also contributes to the complications of diabetes. For example, babies conceived during times of famine switch on hundreds or thousands of genes in anticipation of having to survive after birth in an environment of extreme scarcity. If these babies then grow up in a world of abundant food and little need to exercise, those switched-on genes become dangerously dysfunctional, leading to obesity, diabetes and other problems.

Most statistics are done assuming that we tend to eat and live the way our parents did. So if your parent’s poor lifestyle choices resulted in Type 2 Diabetes, take a good, hard look at your current lifestyle. Are you making the same mistakes as your parents which are increasing your risk factors for developing Type 2 Diabetes?