20% of type 2 diabetics are not obese and never have been...

[cazscot]

We had the first of our honours year diabetes lectures today and amongst the usual information our lecturer explained that 1) there is a very strong genetic link with type 2 diabetes eg if one of your parents has type 2 then you are more likely to develop type 2, no matter what weight you are and 2) that although obese people are more "prone" to type 2 there are 20% diagnosed with type 2 that are not obese and have never been obese.

Unfortunately I never got the opportunity to ask her where she got her figures from as the lecture was running late.

Next weeks lectures are on the genetics of both type 1 and type 2 so should be interesting...

 

[Robster65]

I've seen the 20% quite a few times so it must be an accepted statistic. Sounds a very interestign lecture Carol.🙂

Next week's sound sa real humdinger. Hope you can pass some of the info on to us. And then explain it please 🙄

Rob

 

[Northerner]

This is what I have heard as well, which is why it is so wrong that campaigns only ever identify Type 2 diabetes (or often just 'diabetes') as a potential risk for overweight or obese people. The corollary being that, if you lose weight then you won't get it, which simply isn't true for thousands of people.

 

[Hazel]

So who is going to tell the media, the truth...........

 

[cazscot]

I've seen the 20% quite a few times so it must be an accepted statistic. Sounds a very interestign lecture Carol.🙂

Next week's sound sa real humdinger. Hope you can pass some of the info on to us. And then explain it please 🙄

Rob

Yep really looking forward to next weeks lectures. I am going to ask the lecture (she seems nice we have only had her last week and this week) if I can use the slides (may not be able to as they may be copyrighted) and also if I can record the lecture... As for explaining it all Rob we will nee to wait and see LOL

 

[mcdonagh47]

So who is going to tell the media, the truth...........

..that 80% of Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity ? They seem to know that already !

 

[cazscot]

This is what I have heard as well, which is why it is so wrong that campaigns only ever identify Type 2 diabetes (or often just 'diabetes') as a potential risk for overweight or obese people. The corollary being that, if you lose weight then you won't get it, which simply isn't true for thousands of people.

Yep, there is no doubt that being obese is a risk factor but that is exactly it, it increases your risk of developing type 2 if you have the genetic predisposition for it... If you don't have the genetic predisposition then no matter how overweight or obese you are you won't get type 2 and the same goes for if you have a very strong genetic predisposition for type 2 then no matter how thin you are you are still going to develop type 2.

Sorry I better get off my soapbox now...

So who is going to tell the media, the truth...........

Don't know if there is any point Hazel as they would just twist the facts to their own ends LOL 🙄

 

[Northerner]

..that 80% of Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity ? They seem to know that already !

Rather, they seem to think that it is 100%...🙄

 

[Mark T]

..that 80% of Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity ? They seem to know that already !

The first rule of statistics is that you can make them mean what you want them to mean

 

[MeanMom]

I often wonder (as you do) what my genetic predisposition to T2 is, having had a non obese father with T2 and having a daughter with T1? And personally being shaped like a pear not an apple?
Actually I'm not sure I want to know...

 

[Andy HB]

..that 80% of Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity ? They seem to know that already !

You got there ahead of me, thanks!

 

[lizabetic]

I have a question that keeps floating around in my head... I understand the genetic predisposition etc, but if someone with no family history but who is overweight could they develop type 2 due to putting their pancreas etc under so much stress? Or doesn't it work like that?

 

[Copepod]

Compare with the link between smoking and lung cancer - the vast majority of people who get lung cancer are or have been smokers for either long period and / or heavily; a few people who have never smoked get lung cancer; a few people who are heavy smokers don't get lung cancer, and their "protection" seems to come from genetic factors.

As epidemiologists sometimes explain - in the UK, there tends to be a relationship between population of a town, number of churches and number of pubs - not because pubs "cause" churches or churches "cause" pubs, but number of churches and pubs are both "caused" by population size.

 

[Robster65]

As I see it, there are a large number of genes that have a link to diabetes risk and some people carry some of the genes. In the right/wrong combination, they will increase the risk from 1% to 100% and the environmental/lifestyle factors will add to that risk.

If you are otherwise in perfect health and fitness then your underlying risk remains as it is, but if you are sedentary and obese, you will increase your risk. All statistical of course. Some people have low risk and develop it no matter what.

So Meanmom, you may be lucky to have genes that aren't high risk ones or you may find in 10 years you start to get high BGs. If they could predict it, it would make things a lot easier.🙂

Rob

 

[Robster65]

I have a question that keeps floating around in my head... I understand the genetic predisposition etc, but if someone with no family history but who is overweight could they develop type 2 due to putting their pancreas etc under so much stress? Or doesn't it work like that?

And I would guess that a lot of people carry some of the genes without them being expressed within close family so wouldn't realise. If they then increase their risk by putting the pancreas under strain, they may discover they are carriers of those genes ! 🙂

Rob

 

[Copepod]

The other thing to remember is that if being overweight / obese doesn't give a certain person type 2 diabetic, the excess weight will probably damage them in someway - obesity causing wear and tear of weigh-bearing joints, due to simple physics, in addition to genetic predisposition to arthritis; many cancers and cardio vascular problems are associated with being overweight / obese.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

..that 80% of Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity ? They seem to know that already !

And yet a huge majority of overweight and obese people do NOT have diabetes...

Quick Google suggests 23% of adults in teh UK are obese (if you include overweight the proportion rises to over 60%)

UK population is approx 62.3 million, so you have over 14.3 million obese people in the UK.

2.8 million diabetics... 90% have T2 which is 2.5 million... If 20% of those are normal weight or underweight at Dx the number of obese diabetics is a smidge over 2 million.

14.3million vs 2million...

I make that about 14% of the obese population (though I may have made a schoolboy error in haste)...

I am NOT saying that obesity is not a massive concern. I'm not saying that being significantly overweight does not indicate an increased risk of diagnosis. But I do get sick of hearing over and over again that the relationship between diabetes and weight is completely linear, when the numbers just dont stack up to my simple mind...

 

[Andy HB]

And yet 90% of overweight and obese people do NOT have diabetes...

I have one word for you .... Genetics! 🙂

Oops! And some more .....

Also, I guess that some of that 90% are undiagnosed diabetics like wot I was for 5-10 years.

Andy 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I have one word for you .... Genetics! 🙂

Oops! And some more .....

Also, I guess that some of that 90% are undiagnosed diabetics like wot I was for 5-10 years.

Andy 🙂

The estimates for undiagnosed are usually 800,000 aren't they..?

So yes, I buy the genetics. I also think that undiagnosed peeps gain weight as their metabolism breaks down, so that increased weight at Dx might be in part a symptom of the developing condition.

Of course 14% (if I got that right) is a HUGE proportion, but it still seems a good deal more complex than the media version of A + B = C

 

[mcdonagh47]

And yet a huge majority of overweight and obese people do NOT have diabetes...

Quick Google suggests 23% of adults in teh UK are obese (if you include overweight the proportion rises to over 60%)

UK population is approx 62.3 million, so you have over 14.3 million obese people in the UK.

2.8 million diabetics... 90% have T2 which is 2.5 million... If 20% of those are normal weight or underweight at Dx the number of obese diabetics is a smidge over 2 million.

14.3million vs 2million...

I make that about 14% of the obese population (though I may have made a schoolboy error in haste)...

I am NOT saying that obesity is not a massive concern. I'm not saying that being significantly overweight does not indicate an increased risk of diagnosis. But I do get sick of hearing over and over again that the relationship between diabetes and weight is completely linear, when the numbers just dont stack up to my simple mind...

So we have 48 million non-obese people of which 0.5 million have T2 diabetes ( 1%). As opposed 14% of obese people who have T2 diabetes.
So you are 14 times more likely to be dxed T2 if you are obese ( or have been obese) - sorry, the "media" has got obesity and the risk of T2 diabetes bang to rights on those figures.

Plus you have to remember that this 14% of obese people with diabetes is not static, its a rolling programme. Obese T2 diabetics are dying all the time and being replaced with newly dxed recruits to that 14% figure - so the fact that 14% of obese people have T2 diabetes at any one time, surely suggests that most obese people will be T2 if they live long enough ?

The worrying thing about this "obesity epidemic" is that many parents apparenlty can't see their children are overweight and are storing up health problems such as T2 diabetes for the future.