WHEN I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes mellitus in 2001, when I was 37 years old, I was saddened, but not quite surprised. Other than a consistently high fasting blood sugar (FBS) reading during medical exams, I experienced no symptoms, although other people may find themselves frequently thirsty, getting dry skin, or developing blurred vision.

Three factors almost guaranteed that I would eventually end up with the disease, however. First, I was about 20 pounds overweight, in spite of the fact that I was fairly active. This was mainly because of the second factor: I had terrible eating habits. I snacked regularly, ate more fastfood than home-cooked meals, and I loved sweets. Third, an older brother of mine had just died of complications from diabetes the year before, and I had aunts and uncles who had the disease, although neither one of my parents had it. It took a doctor?s declaration to confirm that I was finally there.

It?s a bit of an enigma, this disease, because we see the whole range of experiences of people who live with it. The American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) reminds people that it is truly a serious illness, causing more deaths a year in the United States than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Two out of three people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke, the website reports.

In the Philippines, doctors cite rising figures because of the awful diet of today?s Filipino children, which includes a lot of processed food (especially instant noodles), sugar-filled juice drinks, and sweets. On the other hand, there are people who have made peace with the disease and managed to keep it at bay with a healthy lifestyle. With proper management, life can be pretty normal when you have Type II diabetes. Although I have to be eternally vigilant about what I eat, and I sometimes freak out my dinner companions when I lance my finger and measure my blood sugar at the table, my life has pretty much remained the same.

In a nutshell, diabetes is a disease involving the hormone insulin that brings glucose, which is broken down from food by digestion, to the cells for use as energy, explain diabetes experts Diana Guthrie, R.N., and Richard Guthrie, M.D., in their book ?The Diabetes Sourcebook.? The digestion process also involves signaling the pancreas to release this insulin. When you have Type I diabetes, your body simply can?t make the insulin, which is why it has to be injected into the system. In Type II diabetes, your cells become resistant to the insulin, and medication is needed to keep the sugar levels from rising. In both cases, without intervention, the excess glucose will be left to wander around your body, wreaking havoc on your vital organs and blood vessels.

About 95 percent of all people diagnosed with diabetes, reports the website about.com, suffer from Type II diabetes. While this is often considered the ?milder? form because it doesn?t require insulin injection, this is what you can bring upon yourself if you don?t watch it. ?While Type I diabetes is more often inherited, Type II is the kind that can evolve,? says internist Dr. Marcelo Esguerra. ?Even if you are genetically predisposed to diabetes, you can control it through proper diet and exercise. Meanwhile, even if it?s not in your genes, if you eat a lot and are not active, you can definitely develop it.?

Genetics is only one factor that can bring on the disease, doctors say. The American Diabetes Association lists several other risk factors for Type II diabetes. One of these is a new medical term, ?metabolic syndrome,? which about.com defines as a cluster of disorders that can increase your risk not just of diabetes, but also of heart disease and stroke. The website includes a test that you can take to determine your risk level. In the meantime, here are some questions you should ask yourself. If you answer ?yes? to any of them, consider yourself a candidate ? and take action now.

1. Am I obese or overweight? Many doctors today consider body mass index or BMI a more accurate measure of obesity, which is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. (To get the figure, divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared.) Another gauge would be abdominal fat; a waistline of 40 inches or more for men and 35 inches or more for women, giving you what is often described as a ?pear shape,? would be bad news.

2. Do I eat unhealthy? With today?s health consciousness, we all know what good eating means ? more fruits and vegetables and lots of fiber, and less of the fat, processed fare, and refined sugar. In other words, if you still choose the fries and donut over the whole-wheat pasta, you know you?re going to pay for it one day.

3. Do I lead a sedentary lifestyle? Does your idea of movement still mean lifting the remote? Does climbing one flight of stairs leave you winded? Studies have shown that as little as 30 minutes a day can get you on the road to better health. Even walking will do for a start.

4. Am I above 45? Many experts consider this the critical age, although juvenile diabetes and, as in my case, getting diagnosed earlier is not uncommon. In the US, 21 percent of people over 60 have diabetes, reports about.com. When you hit this age, it?s time to be more careful on all fronts, anyway. Your party-hard, drink-till-you-drop days should really be over.

5. Is it in my family history? The gene increases the likelihood of your getting diabetes, especially if both of your parents have it in their family. Again, however, you can hold it off through good eating and exercise ? or you can hasten its onset with bad habits.

6. For females: Did my sugar rise when I was pregnant? This is called gestational diabetes, and is a good indicator that you will eventually develop the disease.

7. Do I have metabolic syndrome? That is, are there other health factors working against you? A simple blood test will give you the answers. The American Diabetes Association lists such figures as triglycerides of 150 mg/dl or more, HDL (good) cholesterol of less than 40 mg/dl for men and less than 50 mg/dl for women, blood pressure of 130/85 or higher, and an FBS of 110 mg/dl or more. It took several consistently high FBS tests for me to conclude that I was really diabetic. ?