Featuring Dr. Richard Bebb, MD, ABIM, FRCPC

Duration: 2 minutes, 47 seconds

Many people are genetically at risk for developing diabetes.

If you have a parent, for example, who has diabetes your risk is going up, particularly for type 2 diabetes. That’s not to belittle the importance of diet and lifestyle, which are critical.

The incidence of diabetes and obesity, because they’re related, has been a significant problem in the Western society in North America in the last few decades. What’s happened is that we’re getting more and more over weight, we’re becoming more sedentary, we’re not eating as nutritious foods, we’ve moved towards high saturated fat, high glycemic index sweet foods that are quick and readily available, perhaps too much so, and there’s been a lot of, particularly in children, intake of sugary beverages.

All these things have been a contributing factor. The other major factor is exercise. And one can put some of the blame on the internet age. When we were children, for example, it was very common that your parents said “get out of the house and come back at dinner time” and you went to the park, you rode your bike, you played in the yard.

Today’s children, their experience is more inside the house. They’re sitting in front of their computers, they’re playing on video games, they’re watching TV, and all this has set the stage for weight increase.

So, obesity, which used to be more of an issue as we got into our 30s, 40s, and 50s is now into the second generation of life, and we’re seeing because of it diseases, type 2 diabetes, which was generally coming on in your fourth decade now coming on in the second decade. We’ve got 15 year olds on medication for type 2 diabetes because of obesity.

So, it’s important to check for this even at a young age if you’re an at-risk individual who has got a family history of diabetes because even in that second decade of life when you’re a teenager, you can start to develop cholesterol deposits in your arteries, you can get high blood pressure.

The seeds of damage to your organs can already start, so even at that young age it’s important to address the factors that are important. So, it’s necessary to enlist the help of these individuals from, again, your physician, dietitian, nurse, ophthalmologist, pharmacist to help you deal with your diabetes to best of your ability.

Presenter: Dr. Richard Bebb, Endocrinologist, Victoria, BC

Local Practitioners: Endocrinologist