I remember attending an obesity conference in Liverpool in 2009 arranged by the Association for the Study of Obesity. One of the speakers was a Professor in Diabetes and Metabolic Endocrinology. I’m not sharing his name, as it was a private session. He told the conference that he was seeing teenage type 2 diabetics for the first time and they would be unlikely to see the age of 40. I was so shocked by this comment, I approached him afterwards and asked where the age 40 came from. He said we had not seen teenage type 2 diabetics thus far and so there was no study of life expectancy. This was his medical opinion, from his experience of the condition these children were in, and his knowledge of what type 2 diabetes would continue to do to them.
From 14-18th September 2015, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting was held in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the presentations was by Dr Michael Yafi. I wonder if he realised he would make global headlines the day after his talk. He reported in his session that he had diagnosed a 3 year old girl with type 2 diabetes. This was believed to be a new global record for age of diagnosis...
