Can A Thin Person Get Type 2 Diabetes?
You Don’t Have to Be Overweight to Develop Diabetes Most people tend to think of diabetes as a disease of overweight sugar addicts, but that’s a dangerously misleading assumption. In reality, there is a surprising number of people who are not overtly overweight, but are what’s known as metabolically obese – showing signs of insulin resistance and hypertriglyceridemia (high level of fat in the blood). This puts the body at risk for type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. In fact, many people develop type 2 diabetes without fitting the typical description, and that can have terrible consequences for the thinner diabetic. Diabetes Complications in Thinner People Although experts agree that carrying too much extra weight will increase your risk of developing diabetes, there is a bit of a paradox among those who already have diabetes: thinner diabetics tend to have more severe complications. Research shows that diabetics in a normal weight range are twice as likely to die from a heart attack or stroke as those patients who are overweight or obese (according to their body mass index, or BMI), and they’re also at greater risk for other serious disorders. It’s unclear why diabetics with bigger BMIs seem to live longer and with fewer complications, but the evidence suggests that there’s more at play than the number on the scale when it comes to diabetes. Muscle mass, body measurements, and fitness level all factor into your disease risk and your chances of suffering from a fatal coronary event. Factors that May Lead to Insulin Resistance Since weight is clearly not the only issue, it’s important to determine what other factors might be putting you at risk for type 2 diabetes. Although obesity may not explain everything, recent research suggests that a few asp Continue reading >>
Why Thin People Can Become Diabetic—and It’s Not Insulin Resistance
There is a blatantly illogical explanation in medicine about Type 2 diabetes being caused by insulin resistance. On one hand, it is claimed that weight gain in the form of excess fat causes insulin resistance, and other hand, it is also claimed thin people, who by definition, do not seem to have to extra fat, can develop insulin resistance, too. In my view, this is contradictory and points to yet another reason that insulin resistance as the cause of Type 2 diabetes does not make sense. Let me give you four reasons why it makes no sense biologically that insulin resistance occurs in both obese people and thin (lean) people and causes Type 2 diabetes: 1. In obese people, the current medical teaching is that the accumulation of excess fat causes insulin resistance as well as impairs insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Meanwhile, to explain why thin people get diabetes, it is believed that these people suffer from a rare genetic “defect” characterized by a lack of fatty tissue. In other words, on one hand, excess fat causes insulin resistance while on the other hand insufficient fat can also cause it. 2. The amount of fat tissue a person has is actually a function of the number of fat cells and the capacity of each cell to store fat (also called triglyceride). The number of fat cells increases from childhood ending with about 50 billion in an average adult. Obese adults do not have more fat cells than they had before, but they have larger fat cells, up to 4 times the normal size, when filled to capacity with fat. When a person loses weight, the number of fat cells remain the same, but each cell loses fat. We know that obese people who lose weight can lower their blood sugar and even reverse diabetes. But this presents another paradox: Why don’t obese diabetics w Continue reading >>
The Diabetes Risk Factor You Should Consider Even If You're Thin | Prevention
(Fight diabetes and lower your cholesterol with the affordable, effective health hacks in The Doctors Book of Natural Healing Remedies !) Also called "impaired glucose tolerance" or "impaired fasting glucose," prediabetes involves blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association , having the condition puts you higher risk of developing both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Unlike diabetes, there are no clear symptoms of prediabetes. But there is a very strong predictor of whether you might have it or not, Wyne says: your family history. Type 2 diabetes runs in families, she notes. So, you could be a normal weight, and even physically fit, and still be at risk. (Here are 10 sneaky signs you may develop diabetes, and how you can stay healthy .) If you have multiple family members diagnosed with diabetes, its worth getting tested, Wyne believes. Knowing you have prediabetes can help you make lifestyle choices that can help you put off getting diabetes for as long as possible. Diabetes doesnt happen overnight, says Stuart Weiss, MD, clinical assistant professor of endocrinology at NYU Langone Health. There is a slow decline in insulin capacity over time, and this can be accelerated by the stress of a poor diet or inactivity. He suggests getting blood sugar checked as part of an annual screening, along with blood pressure and triglycerides. (Here's exactly what one man ate to get his blood sugar under control for good .) Think of prediabetes as a warning sign, adds Wyne. It tells you to make some changes in areas like nutrition and activity, so you can prevent developing diabetes in the immediate future. Continue reading >>
Think Skinny People Don’t Get Type 2 Diabetes? Think Again.
In the last article we discussed the complex relationship between body weight and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). We learned that although obesity is strongly associated with T2DM, a subset of “metabolically healthy obese” (MHO) people have normal blood sugar and insulin sensitivity and don’t ever develop diabetes. In this article we’re going to talk about the mirror reflection of the MHO: the “metabolically unhealthy nonobese” (MUN). These are lean people with either full-fledged type 2 diabetes or some metabolic dysfunction, such as insulin resistance. You might even be surprised to learn that skinny people can and do get T2DM. They are rarely mentioned in the media, and there isn’t much written about them in the scientific literature. Perhaps these folks have been overlooked because type 2 diabetes has been historically viewed as a disease of gluttony and sloth, a self-inflicted outcome of eating too much and not and not exercising enough. But the very existence of the MUN phenotype proves that there’s more to T2DM than overeating and a sedentary lifestyle. Remember that one in three type 2 diabetics are undiagnosed. It’s possible that a significant number of these people that are lean. They don’t suspect they might have T2DM because they’re under the impression that it’s not a condition that affects thin people. This is one of the biggest dangers of the myth that “only fat people get diabetes”. It’s well-known that high blood sugar can precede the development of T2DM for as long as ten years. It is during this time that many of the complications associated with diabetes – nerve damage, retinal changes, and early signs of kidney deterioration – begin to develop. This is why it’s just as important for lean people to maintain healthy blood s Continue reading >>
Obesity Paradox: Thin Not In For Type 2 Diabetes?
Aug. 7, 2012 -- People who are overweight or obese when they are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes appear to live longer than people whose body weight is normal when their disease is detected, a new study shows. Obesity increases the risks for illness and early death. Despite this, doctors have long puzzled over why bigger patients with certain chronic diseases seem to fare better than those who are thin. This so-called "obesity paradox" has been noted in patients with kidney disease, heart failure, and high blood pressure. The new study, which is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests the protective effect of a higher body mass index (BMI) may also extend to people with type 2 diabetes. BMI is a measure of size that accounts for both height and weight. "This was unexpected given the close association of diabetes with obesity," says researcher Mercedes R. Carnethon, PhD, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Excess body fat worsens the body's ability to use insulin properly, which affects blood sugar control. People with diabetes who are overweight are routinely advised to lose weight to help keep their disease in check. Carnethon cautions that this study doesn't mean that people with diabetes who are overweight should abandon their weight loss efforts. Instead, experts say the study suggests that people who are normal weight when they are diagnosed may be at increased risk of poor health outcomes, though doctors don't fully understand why. "If you are normal weight, you may be at higher risk from diabetes, especially if your fitness status is not so good," says Hermes Florez, MD, PhD. Florez is the director of the division of epidemiology and population health scie Continue reading >>
Thin Type 2s?
We’ve all read about people with Type 1 climbing mountains, dancing ballet, or playing professional football. But people with Type 2 are thought by many to be overweight and sedentary. Last week I learned different. It’s an interesting story. You occasionally hear from diabetes educators about “thin Type 2s,” but for a long time, I thought they didn’t really exist. I thought they were misdiagnosed Type 1s or 1.5s. I figured they had either LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults) or MODY (Maturity Onset of Diabetes of the Young). My reasoning went like this: Type 2 diabetes is driven by insulin resistance. Insulin resistance has many causes, but the main ones are physical inactivity and stress. So how could a very active person develop Type 2? Well, now I know. If you have the right genes, stress can drive even a very active person to Type 2 all by itself. Last week, I spoke at a support group for people with Type 2. Two of the group members, one man and one woman, were not only thin, but very active. The man kept tapping his foot and rocking his legs back and forth. The woman kept moving around in her chair. Both the man and the woman talked of exercising a great deal. In my experience, people with Type 2 don’t move as much as these two do. They don’t fidget. They conserve energy. (Readers — has that been your experience?) Saving energy is vital to survival where life is physically demanding and food is scarce. In a culture like ours, where food is plentiful and physical activity is discouraged, being an energy-saver can contribute to health problems, including Type 2 diabetes. Solving the puzzle At first, I thought, “You guys aren’t really Type 2.” In the past, I had actually helped a number of fit 1.5s by diagnosing them (over the phone!) aft Continue reading >>
Why Do Skinny People Get Type 2 Diabetes?
Of all the misconceptions about type 2 diabetes one of the worst is, “Only overweight people get diabetes.” What some may fail to realize is that there is a genetic risk factor associated with type 2 diabetes. A new study is taking a closer look at lifestyle interventions versus genetic testing in preventing type 2 diabetes. We know that type 2 diabetes results from a combination of both genetic and lifestyle factors, but we don’t know if adverse lifestyles, like being overweight or sedentary, increase an individual’s underlying genetic risk of diabetes. “If, for example, obese individuals with a high level of genetic risk have a higher risk of developing diabetes than obese individuals with a low level of genetic risk, then preventative strategies that target lifestyle interventions to obese individuals with a high genetic risk would be more effective than strategies that target all obese individuals,” says the study. Researchers found that genetics played a larger role than lifestyle factors in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in those who were younger and leaner. Most importantly, the research showed that the risk of type 2 diabetes increased in those who were obese whatever their level of genetic risk. Is it in your genes? The American Diabetes Association reports that type 2 diabetes has a stronger link to family history and lineage than type 1. “Lifestyle also influences the development of type 2 diabetes. Obesity tends to run in families, and families tend to have similar eating and exercise habits,” says the ADA. “If you have a family history of type 2 diabetes, it may be difficult to figure out whether your diabetes is due to lifestyle factors or genetic susceptibility. Most likely it is due to both. However, don’t lose heart. Studies Continue reading >>
Skinny People Get Type 2 Diabetes Too: 10st 7lb Man Who Exercised Regularly Is Stunned To Learn He Has The Condition - Which He Then Reversed In 11 Days With New Diet
When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes four years ago I was stunned. I’d gone for a check-up, and a routine blood test said it all: diabetes. But it made no sense. As a healthy 59-year-old, who went running, played regular cricket, drank moderately (2 units a week) and only weighed 10st 7lb, I was hardly overweight. In fact, at 5ft 7in, my Body Mass Index (BMI) was a healthy 21. Yes, I did overeat sometimes – I was thin and thought I could eat what I liked within reason – but it was mainly healthy food, few ready meals, semi-skimmed milk, grilled rather than fried food, chicken rather than red meat and lots of fresh veg. But over the past two years I had been under a lot of stress: my dad had recently died from prostate cancer, my job had changed radically, and I’d been on high blood pressure pills for a year. Stress can raise your blood sugar levels. But I still thought my diabetes diagnosis was ridiculous – how could someone with my weight and healthy lifestyle be facing the prospect of all the serious complications of type 2 diabetes in ten years’ time, including sight loss and a much greater risk of early death? My GP told me I could control my condition with diet, and gave me a long list of healthy foods and their glycaemic load (the effect each food has on your blood sugar level). After six months on this, my blood sugar level had dropped from 9mmol to 7, although this was still well above 6, the level at which type 2 diabetes is diagnosed. I wanted to be free of diabetes, not just control it. So I researched online and discovered the work of Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University. Type 2 is linked to fat clogging up the liver and pancreas, and Professor Taylor had shown that a very low calorie diet could reverse this. I had to try it. I chose Continue reading >>
Thin Type 2 Diabetics
Diabetes Forum The Global Diabetes Community Find support, ask questions and share your experiences. Join the community We are a minority (somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent of Type 2s depending on which source you consult) but there are still lots of us because so many people have diabetes. I've had a lot of thoughts about us ever since I was diagnosed myself a bit over nine months ago and found out belatedly that you could develop Type 2 diabetes even if you are not officially overweight or obese, as measured by BMI. Apparently what matters is "visceral fat" and another way I've seen it described on this forum is "thin outside, fat inside." So in my case, I had been putting on weight over the past 15 years or so and ended up with a strange "beer paunch" on an otherwise very thin frame. Plus, some people might have no visible "plumpness" or weight gain at all, but still develop T2D. It has also prompted me to rethink the stereotype about overweight people with diabetes. All of my life, prior to diagnosis, I pretty much ate like a horse and that included large quantities of carbohydrates. Although it was a low-fat diet, in retrospect my eating and drinking habits were no "healthier" than other people I know, who happen to be overweight. They seem to balloon with just a little food, whereas my metabolism absorbed large quantities of food without putting on weight, at least until recently. On the treatment side, one of the interesting suggestions I read a couple of days ago on this forum was that for thin people like me, going on an extreme low-carb diet is rather like doing the Newcastle Diet. I did lose 10KG in about three months, and it seems all of the fat came from one area of my anatomy, the waistline. My face became very slightly less "jowly" but otherwis Continue reading >>
How A Thin Diabetic Reversed Her Type 2 Diabetes
I received a letter from reader Sarah, who has successfully used low-carbohydrate high-fat diets and intermittent fasting to reverse her type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, she is not particularly overweight as measured by body mass index, yet still suffered from T2D. At her heaviest, she only had a BMI of 24.9, which puts her in the ‘normal’ range. She writes: The letter I immigrated to US from P.R. China in the end of 1998 when I was 31 years old; I weighed about 55 kg (121 lbs). While I was in China, I lived thousands of miles away from my family, so I had sort of an intermittent fasting life style from age 19 to 31 years old. The meals in China were mostly vegetables and very little protein. I had an annual physical check up every year, but was never told of any abnormal blood results. After I immigrated to the U.S., my lifestyle suddenly changed from one meal per day to three meals consisting of mainly grains with little fat and protein. I gained about 25 pounds (11 kg) in a couple of years, my weight did not continue going up. My heaviest was about 145 pounds (66 kg). When I was diagnosed with diabetes in Dec 2004: Weight: 142 pounds (64 kg) Height: 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm) HbA1c: 9.4 FG: 214 I was told to exercise, so I started yoga shortly after my diagnose. I lost about 10 pounds (5 kg) and 2 inches (5 cm) from my waist but still required metformin. In the spring of 2005, I relocated to Galveston from Houston because of my work as an engineer. My endocrinologist sent me to a nutritionist who measured my after meal glucose in her office, it was near 200 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l) three hours after lunch which was only one low-fat pita bread. I was devastated, my previous family doctor always told me that if I exercise daily, my blood sugar will come down to normal, so Continue reading >>
Slim And Healthy People Also Get Type 2 Diabetes
Overweight, an unhealthy lifestyle and old age are factors that many of us associate with people who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But this isn’t entirely true. In fact, the disease can hit the slim, the fat, the young and the old. This diversity of patients does not make life easy for doctors and researchers, as it creates a need for a great variety of treatment forms. For example, lifestyle changes only work for some patients and not for others. The ideal time for an insulin fix also varies greatly, depending on the patient. However, now two Danish researchers have cracked part of this code. Based on data from a comprehensive English study, they have identified three subgroups of type 2 diabetes patients that have different diseases patterns. In addition to showing that diabetes is expressed in a variety of ways, the study surprises by showing that only 25 percent of the type 2 diabetes patients follow the course of the disease that scientists so far have considered to be the most common one. ”This finding is the first step towards more targeted prevention and treatment for patients with the different subgroups of the disease,” says Kristine Færch, a senior researcher at the Steno Diabetes Center, who co-authored the study. Classification determined by blood sugar Insulin is the key ingredient when we’re talking about type 2 diabetes. Insulin is produced in the body and works by transporting the energy from our food into the cells, where the energy is used. Type 2 diabetes occurs either: As a result of insulin resistance, where the insulin gradually loses its ability to transport energy from food to the muscles. As a result of problems with the beta cells, which are those that produce or secrete insulin. It was previously believed that the most common c Continue reading >>
Yes, Thin People Can Get Type 2 Diabetes
People assume that if youre skinny, youre healthypeople only get diabetes if theyre overweight or obese. Right? Well, no. No matter how thin you are, you can still get Type 2 diabetes . Diabetes isnt related to how you look, said Misty Duchnik, a dietitian and diabetes educator for Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton. Diabetes comes from insulin resistance, which causes high blood sugar. While about 80 percent of people with diabetes are overweight or obese, it happens to thin people as well. Right now, 30 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. Of that, 12 percent of people with diabetes are normal weight. One reason that thin people get diabetes is because they are skinny fat. Also known as dad bod or mom bod, skinny fat refers to a slender body type with small amounts of visible fat. Skinny fat people tend to have a type of fat called visceral fat. Visceral fat grows around your organs instead of under your skin, so it isnt visible. If you have visceral fat, you may not look overweight, but you may still have as much fat as someone who is overweight. The medical term for skinny fat is MONW, which stands for metabolically obese, normal weight, said Duchnik. People who are MONW may look healthy but are at risk for conditions like diabetes. Along with visceral fat, here are some other factors that can lead to diabetes in thin people. Your diet is an important factor in your risk for diabetes. Even if youre thin, a poor diet can still result in visceral fat. Diets high in sugar and unhealthy fats, such as saturated and trans fats, can increase the amount of fat in your body, which can lead to diabetes, said Duchnik. Luckily, visceral fat is very responsive to diet and exercise. Eliminating processed, fried, sugary and fatty foods can help you lose visceral Continue reading >>
Type 2 Diabetes In Women: Young, Slim, And Diabetic
Stephanie Yi, 29, had a body most women would kill for. She never had to work hard to maintain her long-limbed, flat-bellied frame—weekend hikes near her northern California home and lots of spinach salads did the trick. She could easily afford to indulge her sweet tooth with the occasional buttery, sugary snack. At 5'7" and 120 pounds, she had, she figured, hit the good-genes jackpot. But everything changed two years ago, when a crippling fatigue left her sidelined from college classes. Listless, she dragged herself to a doctor, who suspected a thyroid imbalance. A blood test and a few days later, she received the alarming results: Her thyroid was fine; her blood sugar levels were not. She was prediabetic and on the cusp of developing type 2. Stephanie was stunned. Of course, she'd heard diabetes was a health crisis. (At last count, 26 million Americans had the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) But weren't type 2 diabetics fat, sedentary, and on junk-food-and-soda diets? Stephanie hadn't been to a drive-through in ages; she didn't touch meat. Yet, somehow, she'd gotten an illness most slim women dodge. A Growing Threat The CDC estimates that one in nine adults has diabetes and, if current trends continue, one in three will be diabetic by the year 2050. For decades, typical type 2 patients were close to what Stephanie pictured: heavy and inactive. They were also older, often receiving a diagnosis in middle age or beyond. But while such type 2 cases continue to skyrocket, there has been a disturbing increase in a much younger set. The number of diabetes-related hospitalizations among people in their thirties has doubled in the past decade, with women 1.3 times more likely to be admitted than men. Perhaps even more troubling is the e Continue reading >>
If You Think Thin People Don’t Get Diabetes, Think Again!
What body types are linked with a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes? Question: Which of these four body types is/are linked with a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes? Scroll down to check your answers. We know that being overweight or obese puts one at a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. What we may not know is that people who looked thin can and do get Type 2 diabetes. In this article, you will find out why. You will also learn how to use waist circumference to measure central obesity. Thin on the Outside but Fat on the Inside Asians have a "thrifty" phenotype (body type) which means their bodies are made to store extra energy from the food they eat in the form of fat. The excess fat tends to collect in the abdomen (belly). Since belly fat is found deep inside the body and surrounds internal organs, such as the liver and kidneys, the Asian person can look trim and yet have a higher body fat compared to the Caucasian. Indeed, for the same body mass index (BMI), Asians with higher body fat are more likely to develop diabetes compared to Caucasians. As the person looks fat around the centre of the body, we refer to it as "central obesity" or an "apple" body type. There is a strong link between central obesity and diseases like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. That is why the correct answers to the question are: B, C, and D. Although the person in B looks trim, she is centrally obese and may still be at risk of Type 2 diabetes. The persons in C and D are overweight and are at higher risk of Type 2 diabetes than the person in A, who has a healthy weight and is not centrally obese. So What Does This Mean for You? BMI doesn't tell the whole story. To check your diabetes risk, measure your waist circumference in addition to your BMI. Continue reading >>
Can Thin People Get Type 2 Diabetes?
Almost 90 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese, according to government statistics, and it's known that carrying excess weight ups your diabetes risk. The reason is that fat interferes with your ability to use insulin — insulin moves sugar (glucose) from your blood to your cells, which need the sugar for energy. But don't think you're off the hook if you're thin — you still can be at risk for type 2 diabetes, even if you're not heavy. The risk for developing type 2 diabetes may be smaller if you're thin, but it's still real, especially if you're older, says Christopher Case, MD, who specializes in endocrinology in Jefferson City, Mo. It's not known exactly how many thin or normal-weight people have type 2 diabetes, but part of that may be because there is no standard definition for "thin," Dr. Case says. "They may not look obese," Case says, but any excess weight, especially around the stomach, is a risk factor. One of the reasons people can have high blood sugar and develop diabetes whether they're thin or obese is because weight, though a contributing factor, is not the only factor. Type 2 Diabetes Could Be in Your Genes Genetics plays a role in developing type 2 diabetes. Studies show that people who have a close relative (parent or sibling) with type 2 diabetes have a greater than three times higher risk of developing the disease than those with no family history, Case says. Genetics may explain why some people who are thin develop type 2 diabetes and why an obese person might not, he says. African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans also are at greater risk for type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle Choices Raise Your Diabetes Risk These other risk factors, often associated with people who are overweight, can plague thin people, too Continue reading >>
