Age Related Diseases: Reiterating A Few Findings

My maternal grandmother developed type II diabetes when she was around 70. She wasn't heavy. My mother is now 72 and so far has managed to dodge the bullet. I'm 46 and so far my blood sugar readings are pretty much rock steady, so I've been lucky.

I've been working with the geriatric population since 1988, and I've never seen the so-called "truism" that fat people are more prone to these diseases. They affect people of all body types. Age, not size, makes them more likely.

The one "truism" I've seen is that heavier people tend to develop osteoarthritis in the lower extremities at a younger age if they're prone to it, but don't tend to develop osteoporosis. More slender body types tend to be vulnerable to osteoporosis, and at a certain age the osteoarthritis thing evens out. However, doctors don't go around telling thin people with osteoporosis that "this is your fault. If you'd just eaten more you wouldn't have had this happen!" So why they feel justified in blaming fat people for--well, pretty much everything that happens to us--I'll never know.