• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 2 surges in people younger than 20.

  • Thread starter Thread starter catherinecherub
  • Start Date Start Date
Hi Catherine, I went a session at the Diabetes UK conference about type 2 diabetes in young people. It is still, fortunately, rare in this country as the evidence suggests that young people who do get type 2 have more complications, earlier, and it affects their quality of life very badly. As you say young people who develop type 2 are going to have it for a very long time; there's no stronger case for saying that prevention is better than cure (or in this case of course, not cure but treatment).
 
Its true that it is very worrying that younger people are getting it. I was one of those. They asked to share my details with scientists and study groups looking into it and gathering information. Also happen to be one of those with some pretty heft life changing complications of kidney problems.

All within 1 year of diagnosis at just over 22. Hopefully they can try and find a link to whats causing this sudden trend. And so far they agree that its purely not obesity yay :lol:
 
This post made me register as it's extremely relevant to me. I'm 20 and was diagnosed as a type 2 at 18 with a HbA1c off the richter scale. It was a massive wake up call me to and my diabetes nurse was extremely concerned at time of diagnosis. 2 years on my most recent HbA1c was 5.8 and I've lost 3 stone in that time and I'm much fitter now and my tablet intake has halved.

I feel a lot more education needs to happen and explain to people exactly what diabetes is and what it entails, it's simply not enough to tell people to not eat bad food. You'd be surprised at all the people I meet who have a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to diabetes and are simply ignorant to it. I was one of the ignorant until my diagnosis and I'm pretty much my own carb police now I understand everything fully. It took me a good year to understand the complexities of what my body can handle and how quickly I can deal with carbohydrates. Through a lot of research I know probably as much as my diabetes nurse and that's unfortunately had to happen by actually getting the illness as opposed to being taught it beforehand.

In a way I'm thankful of my diagnosis as it's changed my life for the better as I'm at a healthy weight and think constantly about everything I eat.
 
Hi Mike,

Nice to hear from you and welcome to the forum.

Hope you start to post and help with other postings.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…