What Causes Diabetes?

Diabetes affects your body’s ability to create fuel for your cells. Ideally, your body should be able to use a hormone called insulin to convert sugar in your blood into cell energy. But any issues with that process land you with one type of diabetes or another — and excess blood sugar. 

Fortunately, Dr. Peymon Zarreii offers diabetes treatment to give your body what it needs to properly use blood sugar. This prevents this sugar from building up in your bloodstream, where it can cause health conditions from nerve damage to vision loss. 

Here at Zarreii Medical and Aesthetics in Delray Beach, Florida, Dr. Zarreii doesn’t just deliver treatment, though. He also works to help his patients understand their conditions and the choices they can make to improve their outcomes.

With that goal in mind, let’s look at the cause of the two most common types of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes

This type of diabetes usually develops early in life. It occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks the cells in your pancreas that are supposed to produce insulin. Without enough insulin to convert blood sugar to cell energy, sugar builds up in your blood. 

Researchers still haven’t pinpointed what, precisely, causes type 1 diabetes, but they think genetics plays a role. 

Type 2 diabetes

While type 1 diabetes isn’t preventable, you can take steps to avoid this second type. And that’s worth noting since it’s by far the most common type of diabetes. 

Type 2 diabetes develops over time because your body starts to resist insulin as it tries to convert blood sugar into fuel for cells. In many cases, your pancreas tries to make more insulin to overcome this resistance — but it simply can’t. 

While a family history of type 2 diabetes heightens your risk for this condition, you can control a number of the other factors that put you more at risk. Some of the risk factors to avoid include:

• Being overweight
• Getting active fewer than three times a week
• Eating an unhealthy diet

The good news? In some cases, you can reverse type 2 diabetes by doing the opposite of the above: losing weight, exercising more frequently, and eating a balanced, nutritious diet. 

And you don’t have to do it alone. Dr. Zarreii and our team can help you make lifestyle adjustments to prevent or treat type 2 diabetes. 

Ultimately, whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes or you want to avoid these conditions, we can help. For diabetes treatment or type 2 diabetes prevention, contact our team at Zarreii Medical and Aesthetics by either calling our office or booking your appointment online today.