Is type 2 diabetes genetic?

Is type 2 diabetes genetic?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes?; When should I get emergency care if I have diabetes?; Why should I should I have my urine checked if I have diabetes? and more...

With type 2 diabetes I always say, who else in your family has this, because it is so genetic. And even though there's this huge environmental component, so that the genes that cause type 2 diabetes if you live in rural Mexico and you're out in the field working, you're not going to have diabetes. But if you and your sister move up to LA, you're going to end up getting diabetes because suddenly you're no longer working in the fields, you're much more sedentary and you're eating a lot more food and in particular a lot more junk food. So type 2 diabetes, the way I look at it, is almost always found in families. The corollary to that is: if you have type 2 diabetes make sure you watch out for your kids and your siblings and even your parents, because I see it up and down in families. I'll see somebody who gets it in their forties who will then find out that their mother has it and who will look at their kids and try to figure out how to keep their kids from getting it; so this is a family disease.