Type 2 diabetes: the risk factors you can change

In type 2 diabetes the body cannot use insulin well and blood sugar rises over time. It can be present for years before diagnosis, quietly affecting the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and blood vessels. The encouraging part: much of the risk is modifiable, and the stage before diabetes — prediabetes — is often reversible.

Know your risk

Risk goes up with age, a family history of diabetes, certain ethnic backgrounds (including South Asian, East Asian, African, Hispanic and Indigenous), carrying extra weight around the middle, high blood pressure, a history of gestational diabetes, and physical inactivity. Diabetes Canada's CANRISK questionnaire takes a few minutes and tells you whether to ask for a blood test.

The test

A simple blood test — fasting glucose or A1C — shows whether your blood sugar is normal, in the prediabetes range, or in the diabetes range. Adults are generally advised to be screened every three years from age 40, or earlier and more often with risk factors.

What you can change

1. Move more. Regular activity makes muscles use glucose better, often within days.
2. Adjust the plate. More vegetables, beans and whole grains; fewer sugary drinks and refined carbohydrates. A registered dietitian can tailor this.
3. Lose a modest amount of weight if you carry extra. Even 5–10% can move blood sugar meaningfully.
4. Don't smoke, and get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked too — they travel together.

Why the early stage is the opportunity

At the prediabetes stage there is usually no damage yet, and lifestyle change (sometimes with medication) can bring blood sugar back to normal or delay diabetes for years. Once complications begin, they are managed rather than undone. This is a condition where a blood test today genuinely changes the next decade.

Sources

• Diabetes Canada — Are you at risk? (CANRISK)
• Diabetes Canada — Prediabetes
• Public Health Agency of Canada — Diabetes