That is a really good question and I will be interested in what others have to say. I was diagnosed at age 40 and my grandmother had T2 diabetes. I wasn't seeing a doctor between the ages of 30-40 and I don't remember if I had an A1C done when I was diagnosed 10+ years ago. I could have had diabetes for several years.
Hi Onaughmae, did they do tests (like GAD antibody test) to confirm that you are type 2 and not type 1? Doctors normally tend to consider a 16 year diabetic as type 1 and proceed with type 1 treatment. Only really good doctors would go beyond this to find out if their young patient is type 1 or type 2. I think you were fortunate to have a good doctor.
True. Type 2 has both genetic and environmental basis. But I don't think "Western lifestyle" is a major factor for many type 2 diabetics like me. Although I live in a Western country now, I don't regularly eat Western food; nor did my parents or other ancestors. We are traditionally vegetarians, cook our food from raw materials (i.e., do not normally purchase prepared food) and consume a good amount of vegetables and fruits, in addition to milk and milk products like yogurt. But my father was diabetic and three of my four older siblings are diabetic. My maternal grandmother passed away due to diabetic complications long before I was born.
Yes, I dont have antibodies. I was *blessed* instead with extreme insulin resistance. My pancreas overworked itself to death (literally) trying to keep up. Of course, hammering it for years with pancreas stimulating drugs made it work even more into overdrive until my poor islet cells just finally gave up the ghost. According to my last c-peptide I am still producing a scant amount of insulin, but not enough to survive on with just basal body requirements.
Do they, or do they just get diagnosed then? I would suspect that weight gain and predictable "slowing of metabolism" have something to do with it. Toss in a decline in beta cell population and there you have it.
