On my cellphone Thursday afternoon I was told that I have diabetes. This is less of a shock when you figure in that I'm fat, I had gestational diabetes with my first child (but not my second, hmm?) and my Mom is diabetic. Then when I take into account that chemo may have done God knows what with my pancreas, well there we are.
So then I started to talk to my Mom and she reminded me that her brother is also diabetic. Okay, I knew that but had forgotten and then I'm told that her father was not diabetic. He was one of nine and seven of them were diabetic. Holy crap! 7 out of 9! This was back in the 40's, 50's, 60's, before it was so prevalent because of "our lifestyle".
What are the odds of that? Well, I am not a mathemetician but I did find that Type 2 diabetes tends to be fairly hereditary. Approximately 38% of siblings with type 2 diabetes will develop diabetes. If I follow that it looks like Mom's side of the family has a 78% chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Then I found that research also shows that 1/3 of children of diabetics will develop it as well. Mom's parents did not have diabetes and they've shown a 100% prevalence.
These numbers have me thinking about BRCA testing. Some brave women find out that their personal risk of breast cancer is incredibly elevated because of their genetic predisposition and have prophylactic surgery. What do I do with my kids? Can we get them on a pancreatic transplant list? Feed them a diabetic diet from now on? Start taking them to the endocrinologist?
So then I started to talk to my Mom and she reminded me that her brother is also diabetic. Okay, I knew that but had forgotten and then I'm told that her father was not diabetic. He was one of nine and seven of them were diabetic. Holy crap! 7 out of 9! This was back in the 40's, 50's, 60's, before it was so prevalent because of "our lifestyle".
What are the odds of that? Well, I am not a mathemetician but I did find that Type 2 diabetes tends to be fairly hereditary. Approximately 38% of siblings with type 2 diabetes will develop diabetes. If I follow that it looks like Mom's side of the family has a 78% chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Then I found that research also shows that 1/3 of children of diabetics will develop it as well. Mom's parents did not have diabetes and they've shown a 100% prevalence.
These numbers have me thinking about BRCA testing. Some brave women find out that their personal risk of breast cancer is incredibly elevated because of their genetic predisposition and have prophylactic surgery. What do I do with my kids? Can we get them on a pancreatic transplant list? Feed them a diabetic diet from now on? Start taking them to the endocrinologist?