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Aged 46 - 55
Nicky - Interview 18  

Nicky - Interview 18

Age at Interview: 46
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 42
Background: Nicky is an IT software designer and is married with two teenage children. Ethnic background/Nationality: White British.
Brief outline:Diagnosed 4 years ago. Nicky was taking metformin but having established very good control through diet and exercise she no longer takes any medication for diabetes. She also has hypothyroidism.

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Nicky knows many people with diabetes who are not overweight and believes that the main cause is genetic.

 



I really do not believe that obesity is a primary cause of diabetes. For a start, I know lots of obese people who do not have diabetes. I also know a fair number of diabetic people who have never in their lives been overweight. What seems to be the direct link is how much truncal fat you have. How much fat there is around your middle and, and coating your organs. But the direct link, obese-and-diabetes link, I think is completely the other way round than the normal take on it. Obesity causes insulin-resistance, I think most obese people actually do have insulin-resistance, and therefore are probably putting a strain on their pancreas. But unless they have the additional defect in their pancreas, that people with diabetes have as a gene-related thing, it's not going to do any harm at all. They are not going to tip over and have the, the huge loss of beta cell function that diabetics do.

So what do you think caused yours then?

I think I have a genetic problem that runs throughout everybody I know in my father's family now looks like they are diabetics. My mother's family, nobody has diabetes that we know of, but my mother was a very small apple shaped person who died in her early seventies of effectively a heart attack.
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