Does diabetes run in your family?

There’s lots of type 2 in my family - my mom’s father, my mom’s sister had gestational diabetes with both pregnancies, my dad, my dad’s brother, my brother. But I’m the only type 1. I was diagnosed with type 1 around the same time that my grandpa was diagnosed type 2, so he bought me a 10-speed bike “because we can’t eat the same things as everyone else.”

No one in my family is diabetic except for me – type I.

My grandfather is borderline Type 2 (I’m Type 1) and that is it. It doesn’t really run in my family at all.

Both of my parents have it. Each one of them had one parent that was diabetic (all Type II). My parents each have only one sibling and they both have it as well. Out of six children, so far me and my youngest sister both have it. Coincidentally, or not, we are the only two of the six who have struggled with weight issues. My husband has pre-diabetes. His parents both have diabetes as did each of their parents. Doesn’t bode well for my kidlets now does it? (If I knew then what I know now, lol…kidding, just kidding). But, the good news is that my kids will be much more educated about it AND diet and exercise is already a big part of who they are so they don’t have to figure it out when they are in their 30’s. They just have to make the right choices and they are already learning that it is not always so easy to do.

My aunt, uncle, and grandmother have Type 2 (all maternal side), although my aunt’s has been “reversed” through gastric bypass. My mother’s first cousin has Type 1, and I’m not sure whether that’s a close enough connection for it to be genetically related.

Diagnosed Type II since June 6, 2005 (my D-Day of sorts), third generation Type II. My father was diagnosed in his early 50’s, me @ 45, my grandfather I’m not sure - I think in his 60s.

My grandfather lost both legs and passed away at 71 in 1973 (he lived in Scotland).

My father made it to 79 and other than being diabetic he was fairly healthy until about 75. He lost both legs, parts of both hands, and was blind for the last couple of years.

Both were small skinny guys.

Additionally I carry the gene for hemochromatosis which can cause high iron in the blood. I do have high iron but the docs think it is mainly due to a fatty liver, it has gone down with weight loss.

Me, well let’s just say husky and leave it at that.

I’m the only one in my family with diabetes (type 2), except for my stepmother - no blood relation there! The word has been spread though, so that everyone knows to be checked.

My maternal grandfather had type 1. He was LADA before they called it that. My paternal grandmother had type 2.

I remember my grandmother testing my grandfather’s bloodsugar and seeing a high number. “You’ve been eating X at the office meeting weren’t you?” As a three-year-old I thought she was magic. She not only knew he ate something he wasn’t supposed to, but she knew what it was.

My mom’s dad and my dad’s mom were both type 2 but I was the first type 1 in my family. Since I was diagnosed my mom has developed type 2 and this last December my 11 year old niece developed type 1.

No history of any type of diabetes in my family. What are the chances that someone without a family history of diabetes develops Type 1 diabetes just 4 months shy of his 40th birthday? However, asthma and allergies run through almost everyone in the family.

My grandfather and uncle were type 2 , My Brother , My son and Myself type 1s . I also have a cousin with type 1 .

The are no Type 2’s in my family tree and I’m the only Type 1.

Yup, lots of it. My daughter has type 1, and my dad has type 1. My daughter’s paternal grandfather has type 2. Three out of four of my dad’s siblings have had type 2 and my paternal grandma had type 2. I am sure there is more going further back, but my paternal grandpa was an orphan so we don’t know anything about his family history.

On my side there’s one uncle with T2. My husband’s family is loaded, though. He and his father are T2, he has 2 aunts and an uncle with T2, and his mother died from complications of T1 at age 53. Our son, Griffin, is T1.

Kirsten

My twin sister was dx at 1 year of age. My brother at 2 years 4 months, my mom just a month after my sisters funeral originally misdiagnosed as type 2. My daughter in 1998 at 2 years 4 months.

I was lucky, I was part of a twin study done back in the early 80’s which said I should develop D, but never did. My ped said after 20 my chances go down, but now I’m still paranoid that I will get it as I get older. My son being half Finnish and with my family history, has higher then normal chances. I watch him like a hawk, although i’ve relaxed since he is now 5.

My son Aidan is the first person in our family to have diabetes that we know of. There are other automimmune diseases, but no other D.

I’m the only one of either type. However, last year my oldest brother BG tested high. He’s lost a lot of weight since then through diet and exercise. I don’t know how it’s affected his BG levels.

Something in the Water?
My great uncle was a type I diabetic…I was diagnosed at age 4, then 9 months later my 3 year old cousin, then 5 years later his sister, at age 12 - doctors suspeted she had been diabetic for over a year, but since the family was on a ‘diabetic diet’ it went undiagnosed. this was in the 70’s. None of our children, or immediate family children have been diagnosed. :slight_smile:

We all grew up in a small town, pop 3000, my elementary school class size was 40 students. There were 3 other diabetics in that school besides me and my cousins. Another classmate was diagnosed years later at age 19, and another classmate’s child (2 yrs old) was diagnosed this year.

I guess it could be genetic…but maybe my mom and aunt were right…There is something in the water in Breese, Illinois.

It runs in both sides of my family having a greatuncle on one side who was a Type 1 for 60 years and my grandfather had Type 2. I also had a 1st cousion who was a Type 1 at the time I found out I was. Now 34 years later out of that side of the family there are 8 of us grandkids who now have Type 1 with alot of my dad’s brother’s and sister’s having Type 2 including my dad. On my mom’s side she only had 1 soster who died when she was 18 and I really don’t know about any of the 2nd cousions but my oldest daughter has Type 1 and has had it fir 9 years now ( guess she was lucky enough to get mom’s genes ) my youngest has not showed any signs of getting it and I hope it stays that way. As for my granddaughter she’s 8 months old and doing fine so far but her grandfather on her dad’s side was a Type 1 also. He passed away 2 years ago due to complications from a double transplant ( kidney and pancres ) All we can do is wait and see. I really hate the wating part! I can deal with a crisis when it happens but I can’t handel waiting for it to happen!

My grandmother died of diabetic kidney disease. She was a thin “adult onset” diabetic. All my other uncles and aunts on that side of the family died of first heart attacks, several quite young. They were all thin and fit.

My dad lived to be 100, but he ate a diet Dr. Bernstein would have approved of, and he ate that way for 65 years! I believe he carried the gene I have but controlled it with the extreme diet. He rarely ate over 1200 calories a day (he was a little guy) and very little sugar or starch. Mostly he ate yogurt, cottage cheese skim milk, and a very small amount of veggies. I couldn’t eat like that, but it definitely worked.

My daughter in her early 20s is also extremely fit–she recently bicycled 519 miles–but her post-meal blood sugar is 130 mg/dl at 2 and 3 hours after eating, which suggests she has what I have. I was diagnosed as “prediabetic” when I weighed 108 lbs in my late 20s, back before the diagnostic standard was set, so I’m not sure what cutoff they were using.

Because the characteristic of my diabetes (which fits very closely the symptoms of MODY-1) is failure to secrete insulin in response to rising glucose, my fasting blood sugar stayed near normal while my PPs were in the mid 200s, making it very tough to get diagnosed until I put on some weight at menopause.

Before that, despite having 2 diabetic pregnancies, no one ever considered I might have diabetes. It didn’t help that I have an extremely high renal threshold, so I didn’t test for glucose on urine dips, either. Finally, when my bgs were 260 mg/dl 3 hours after a meal, I did spill glucose and got diagnosed.

My brother also tests abnormally high after eating, but his doctor gave him a fasting glucose test and told him he had nothing to worry about. With the family history of sudden heart attack death in the late 50s I worry about him.