Risk factors

1.Excess body weight

       

Your weight plays a large role in developing  type 2 diabetes, especially if your extra weight is around your waist. 

What is a healthy weight to aim for?

This is about working out your Body Mass Index (BMI).  BMI uses your height and weight to work out if you're a healthy weight.  You can work your BMI out for yourself using this NHS tool  – it will show you your target range.

For many people living with obesity, aiming for a healthy BMI may not be realistic. Research shows that  even losing just 5% of extra weight will improve your health. The more weight you lose, the greater the health benefits.

What is a healthy waist size?

BMI  doesn’t look at how much fat you have around the middle. That is why you need to measure your waist too.

Healthy weight size all depends on your gender and ethnicity. For a healthy measurement you need to aim to be less than:

• 80cm (31.5in) for all women
• 94cm (37in) for most men
• 90cm (35in) for South Asian men.

This video from Diabetes UK shows you how to measure your waist size.

2. Physical activity 

 It is estimated that 1 in 3 women, and 1 in 4 men in the UK do not undertake enough activity to stay healthy.

It is recommended that we all undertake at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, or 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise per week.

Being active can:

• Contribute to weight loss
• Increase the way your body uses insulin, reducing the period of time blood glucose levels remain high. 
• Use fat for fuel in endurance exercise such as running or swimming. This reduces levels of fat around your waist.

Exercise videos

This playlist of short videos from Diabetes UK gives you lots of exercise options to choose from. They range from gentle arm and leg movements to dance and a full body workout.

3. Smoking

In the UK, 15% of people aged 18 years and over are said to be active smokers. This means that there are  some 7.2 million active smokers that are putting themselves at risk of type 2 diabetes.

Smokers are estimated to be 30% to 40% more likely to develop T2DM than nonsmokers. Cigarette smoke has been found to contain more than 7000 harmful chemicals, many of which can decrease the effectiveness of insulin as a result of  inflammation and damage cells as a consequence of oxidative stress.

Additionally, the nicotine from smoking can reduce the effectiveness of insulin, resulting in active smokers finding it harder to manage blood glucose levels. 

If you have prediabetes or a previous diagnosis of gestational diabetes, you already have an increased chance of developing cardiovascular disease, such as a heart attack, stroke or circulatory problems in the legs.

Combine this with smoking and you make the chances of developing these diseases and their complications even higher.

Help to stop smoking

NHS inform provides a suite of support and resources to help you to stop smoking. This includes the Quit your Way Scotland service. This is staffed by a team of trained advisors who will give you advice tailored to your needs.  

4. Stress 

 

Stress  hormones cause an increase in blood glucose levels and reduce the effectiveness of insulin. 

For some people, stress can also trigger overeating behaviours. The change in body chemicals resulting from eating “comfort foods'' can dampen stress related responses and emotions. Over time, this can lead to prolonged levels of comfort eating and, ultimately, an increase in body weight and the development of T2DM. 

1.Age

You’re more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes if you’re:

• White and over 40 years old
• African-Caribbean, Black African, or South Asian and over 25 years old.

As we age, our bodies naturally begin to function less efficiently than they did when we were younger. This includes our body becoming less efficient in producing insulin. That can increase our risk of developing type 2 diabetes as we get older. 

2.Genetics

• You’re two to six times more likely to get type 2 diabetes if you have a parent, brother, sister or child with diabetes.

The genetic risk comes from changes in the parts of our DNA that help to control our blood glucose levels. Some of these changes can reduce our body's ability to release insulin. This leads to increases in blood glucose levels. Over time, elevated levels of blood glucose increases the risk of developing T2DM. 

3.Ethnicity

• Type 2 diabetes is two to four times more likely in people of South Asian descent and African-Caribbean or Black African descent.

While the exact cause of this increased risk among different ethnicities is not fully understood, it is likely that our genetics that are passed down to us and determine who we are play a large role.