Could you be at risk of diabetes despite leading a healthy lifestyle?
Published July 24, 2011 | 
The stereotype of a person with type 2 diabetes is someone who is overweight, leading a sedentary lifestyle and eating an unhealthy diet. There is certainly a strong link between diabetes and obesity, but 20% of people with type 2 diabetes are regarded as leading healthy lifestyles.
Indeed, many diabetics haven’t had the condition diagnosed, simply because they’re not aware that they are at risk. People who look perfectly healthy may still have internal (‘visceral’) fat around their vital organs, which means they have a higher chance of developing diabetes.
Treating people with diabetes currently costs the NHS 3.5 billion every year. Over the next decade, the number of sufferers is expected to double, which means the financial burden for the health service will soar even further. Already, there are more than 350 million people with the condition globally. 10% of those cases are type 1 diabetes, with lifestyle not being a factor in those cases. By 2025, there will be 4 million diagnosed cases of diabetes in Britain, according to the charity Diabetes UK.
Many people who don’t consider themselves as being at risk of diabetes don’t realise that symptoms such as increased thirst, fatigue and frequent urination could be indicators of the condition. The condition can remain hidden for years until the pancreas is no longer able to produce enough insulin, or in some cases not able to produce any at all. Rising glucose levels will then affect circulation, and the chance of heart attacks, strokes, blindness and amputation increase.
Warnings about diabetes have primarily been targeted at those who are overweight, and some experts believe this has led to the rest of the population being excessively complacent about the disease. There are also concerns that, as the condition has become more common, it has become increasingly normalised, and not something that people worry about.
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