I am glad you are asking this question, as some doctors I talk to seem convinced that being heavy brings diabetes about.
When I was first diagnosed in my late 40's, and for the first 6 or so years afterward, I was a healthy weight. Since then I avoid refined sugar and starchy foods, and follow a healthy diet. Despite that, when I started taking some of the medicines (Actos and Januvia) I started accumulating fat around the abdomen. The rest of my body still looks thin (arms, face, legs, etc.) In my case, getting heavy came after the disease, rather than causing it. Losing weight, which used to be easy, gets progressively more difficult as I am also trying to maintain my
I am convinced that the cause was genetic. Type II Diabetes runs strongly in my family. Starting with my great grandfather, who had the disease and died at age 82 in 1942, every descendant of his has gotten it eventually. I have data on over 100 of his descendants in my family tree. The overweight ones seem to get it at an earlier age, but many of us were not heavy until after we were diagnosed, and some of us were thin all our lives, even after we were diagnosed.
Case in point: My uncle has been seriously into exercise since youth: he swims every day in the summer and jogs every day the rest of the year. He has never been overweight. He was diagnosed around age 60 and despite avid exercise and staying thin, it just gets worse with age.
Second example: My sister has been thin all her life, and goes to the gym regularly, and she is starting to show signs in her 50's.
Third example: My great aunt was never heavy. She was diagnosed after her ankles started swelling and she had some neuropathy. She lived with progressively worse diabetes into her 90's, despite remaining thin.
More typical: My grandmother was a little overweight when she was diagnosed in her 50's. She followed the diet and lost weight. For the next 25 years she had a "school girl" figure, quite thin. That didn't stop her from becoming insulin dependent for the last 10 - 15 years of her life.View Thread
