Genes and Other Combined Risk Factors

Many different factors contribute to health risks. Although type 2 diabetes is used as an example, the model shown below applies to other common health problems, including heart disease, asthma, and stroke. Most health problems have multiple causes, which come from three categories of risk:

There is more and more information available about genes and their importance to our health. Although our knowledge about genes continues to grow, the genes themselves have changed very little. Each person alive today has a unique combination of the genes that have come down through the generations from his or her ancestors.	The environment has changed a great deal since the time of our ancestors. Advances in technology and modern conveniences have caused people to become more sedentary. The food supply has become more abundant and more calorie-dense. Even within the past generation, definitions of portion size have changed, as shown in Portion Distortion.	Lifestyle choices are important to our health. However, the options available to us often are shaped by our surroundings. Think about the lifestyle choices you make at home, at work, or at school. Which choices are under your direct control? To what extent are your choices limited by your environment? What changes can you make?

One way to look at different categories of risk and health problems is to assign symbols to each category of risk:

For example, the TCF7L2 diabetes risk gene has a lower risk form (a blue smiley factor) and a higher risk form (a blue frown factor). Since there are multiple diabetes risk genes, each person’s genetic risk to develop type 2 diabetes can be thought of as a combination of blue smiley and frown factors.

View the slideshow to see how risk factors from the environment and from lifestyle can combine with genetic risk to cause diabetes.

How does this relate to your health?

To learn about your diabetes risk, take the CDC’s Diabetes Risk Test.

Whether your health concern is diabetes or another health problem, understanding your risk is an important step toward better health for you and your family. Learning about your family health history is the best way to start to learn about the health risks you share with your family members.

To see how this model works for health problems caused by a single gene, click here.