I know someone who recently received a diabetes diagnosis and was shocked to learn she had the disease. This person is pretty fit and eats a healthy diet, but her mother and a couple of uncles have diabetes. I've read that many people in this "sudden diagnosis" category don't realize the role that genetics play in diabetes and that the risk of developing the disease is 5 to 10 times higher if a first-degree relative has it (parents, brothers or sisters) - regardless of a person's weight. Has anyone else with low risk factors been surprised to learned that genetics played a dominant role in their development of diabetes?

There's an idea going around if you change the way you eat, lose weight, exercise you'll avoid.
That makes me angry. Very very angry.

By 2004 I had lost a lot of weight, changed my lifestyle to include exercise (tons of it).
I was eating healthy foods. IN fact I had changed my whole way of behaving.
If anyone was going to avoid diabetes by changing things it should have been me.

Wrong very very wrong.
I was dxed with the diabetes the last Sat. of Jan. 2004.

While I wasn't low risk I had certainly done the work and should have avoided it.

Well there was one thing I couldn't change and that was my family history.
My mother, an aunt, and sister all had it.
Every family reunion another cousin seemed to join the family diabetes club.
My aunt says my grandfather and an uncle probably had it too.
Pa had wounds that took forever to heal.
My uncle had heart disease among other things. Of course Pa and Uncle Max died in the late 50s/early 60s. So there wasn't as much known nor much focus on diabetes so they weren't tested.

So from where I stand genetics certainly play a role in diabetes.

I agree with you. I think genetics plays a very large role in some people developing diabetes and other conditions. For example, like you, I've been watching what I've been eating and making sure to exercise and I still can't lower my cholesterol naturally. Both my mother and father and aunts and uncles on both sides have high cholesterol that they're being treated for. There's definitely a lot to be said for taking a careful family history.