Diabetes despite bmi 18 and healthy eating

[Charcharm]

Many of the women in my family - my late mum and grandmother included- develop type 2 diabetes in their 60s and 70s. What’s perhaps unusual is that they have all had bmi 17-18 with healthy eating habits. No sweet tooth whatsoever, not because of any particular efforts, but just naturally so. My mum didn’t enjoy sweets or baked goods and preferred fruit. Alcohol only a few times per year.

Yet they all develop out of control diabetes. I can only assume there is some powerful genetics at play?

I am now 50 and am wondering what I can do to prevent diabetes as all the advice I hear centers around making lifestyle choices, which didn’t help anyone in my family. It’s not just the diabetes, vascular dementia followed the diabetes diagnosis within ten to fifteen years in all cases. It was horrific and I don’t want to put my children through anything like that if I can help it.

My gp has no time to discuss any of this, I get the same old advice about watching what I eat etc, so I thought I’d ask here. If anyone has any knowledge to share I’d be so grateful.

Would you share a few links to evidence, please Itsgoingtobeagloriousday?
I've searched but been unsuccessful in finding anything positive. TIA

I’m T2, I can’t eat potato of any kind, pasta, rice except basmati in very small quantities and most types of bread product. I wore a CGM for several months and any of those foods spiked my sugars way high and took most of the day to reduce down to high normal levels, even when I was on insulin and metformin. It isn’t all about sweet stuff, it can just be carbs in general.

Oh and any exercise is fantastic for blood sugar levels, even a simple 20 minute brisk walk after a meal makes a dramatic difference to how quickly sugar levels revert to normal range after a meal.

I know several people who aren't overweight who have type 2 diabetes and I know a lot of overweight people with terrible diets who don't. Its genetics just like healthy people can have high cholesterol. Not everything is caused by diet

It’s still in the pilot study stage but looking promising. Here’s an article talking about what was found. https://www.kumc.edu/about/news/news-archive/creatine-alzheimers-research.html

And a BBC article talking about how it’s been shown to boost cognitive function, amongst other new benefits. It’s one of the best researched supplements around but even more is being discovered now. So I’m sure there will be more evidence one way or the other soon.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20250523-the-surprising-health-benefits-of-taking-creatine-powder

Its definitely genetic predisposition but I guess the idea is to use lifestyle factors to help mitigate risks. My mums family all have - so I work hard to build muscle / and I eat quite low carb.

It sounds genetics and that you've inherited a sensitive weak pancreas. You mentioned Northern Europe. I've read that in Sweden you can control type 2 diabetes with keto type diet. There was a doctor called Annika....maybe Dahlqvist who was leading on this.

Get your cholesterol checked. If your Gp won’t do it, you can get Thriva or other tests which involve a self draw device at home (I wouldn’t trust the pin prick ones). This is especially important before you embark on a keto diet as it can increase your cholesterol which is not a good thing.