It's amazing she's still living. I was in hospital/rehabs recently for knee issue and a young 33 yr old came into the room as a room mate, she had been in a terrible accident and had her one leg amputed at the knee...while they were attending her they found out how diabetic she was. She was on daily insulin and told me before accident she was 50 lbs heavier. Poor young girl, mother of 3 and in that bad of shape. She was quite thin at this point but so young and with these disabilities.

While nurse came in to do her blood tests daily, I asked nurse to test mine and I was always 90-100. Her readings were always like 200-300 on the meds and insulin.

She was of mexican heritage and I had heard many mexicans are diabetic, as a matter of fact Mexico has come in first over the U.S. with most obese.

A friend here who has a friend down in Palm Springs says her friend was tested at a point and BS was about 600. She is not in good health at all.

I eat very low carb diet, splurge sometimes with some pizza, but no breads etc and haven't had pasta in years.

I hear you. What has always fascinated me was the people in Samoa. They are a big people. What is the rate of diabetes among that group?

Last night we were all in our Dunkin hangout and naturally all the donuts are on the table. Donuts don't do anything for me. Never did. If I were going to cheat, I'd love a hot fudge sundae (on my birthday, I either have a Calzone or a sundae), but that's once a year.

My poor friend. Last night as she was struggling to get up off the chair, she could not walk. Her knees are SO bad. She's in such pain. She eats from stress. She's worried about her offspring not coming home and staying with the boyfriend so she's up all night till 4 a.m. and she eats.j

Not a good thing. But stress does that to a person. She once said 'If my daughter moves out I will go out of my mind".

I believe her.

Melody

Melody, the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and obesity in Samoa is the highest in the world - the former incidence is more than 30%. Genetic risk factors do not seem to be important. The main risk is ready availability of cheap poor quality imported foods.

I understand your worry about your friend. Maybe you could encourage her to walk a bit more, even if it is only a bit to start with. That will help her to lose weight in a controlled way and could also could help her to deal with her stress. I am not over-weight but walk whenever I am feeling stressed - it works for me.

She walks everywhere. I could never walk like she does. She can barely get up off a chair but she walks (it hurts her, I can tell this) about 10 blocks to her job and back again.

She must have exceptional genes.

Melody