Can you get type 2 diabetes after 60?
Yes. It happens all the time, and Dr. Martin says so without softening it. What he pushes back on is the reason people give for it.
Dr. Martin on the cause:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 729Diabetes is strictly a food problem.
His next words are that it is not genetics, it is food, it is food choices. So the honest answer to the question is yes, you can get it after 60, and no, you did not get it because you turned 60.
Nothing here is a reason to start or stop anything a doctor has prescribed. Talk to your doctor first.
How common it actually is
This was a Diabetes Awareness Month episode, and he opens with the scale of it. Over 40 million Americans officially diagnosed with type 2. Then the number he thinks matters more.
Dr. Martin on the real figure:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 729But an estimated half the population is diabetic or pre-diabetic.
He quotes the man he calls the guru of all gurus on diabetes, Dr. Kraft, whose line was that if you are a prediabetic you are a diabetic. Where it was once rare, he says, it is now a full-blown epidemic.
Why it was called adult onset
The old name for type 2 was adult onset diabetes, and the name itself tells you something.
It was called that because it arrived in adults. It was not something children got. That is no longer true, and he treats the change as the proof of his own argument. Nothing about human genetics moved in forty years. What went on the plate did.
For a woman over 60 the useful part of that is the word onset. It comes on. It is not a switch that flips on a birthday, it is decades of the same fuel finally showing up on a report.
What does not cause it
Dr. Martin on what he clears completely:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 729Nobody ever got diabetes from eating from the animal kingdom, eggs, meat, and cheese, and the plant kingdom, vegetables, even fruit.
That is one of the strongest statements he makes on any topic, and he makes it deliberately, because these are the foods people over 60 have spent years feeling guilty about. Eggs. Steak. Cheese. Butter. Even fruit.
If red meat is the one you have been warned off, he has an episode dedicated to that exact question: does eating red meat give you diabetes.
What does cause it
Dr. Martin on the third kingdom:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 729You get diabetes when you insist on eating from the manmade kingdom, bread, pasta, rice, cereals, sweets, pastries, juice, store-bought milk, alcohol.
Crappy carbs is what he calls them. He notes himself that rice is not literally manmade, but says the way we eat it puts it in the same bucket.
Look down that list and almost nothing on it registers as sweet. The juice does. The toast, the pasta, the bowl of cereal and the glass of wine do not, and that is exactly his point. This is not a list of desserts. It is most of a normal week.
The part that gets missed
Medicine draws the line at a number, he says. Fasting glucose over this, A1C over that, and now you are a diabetic. He thinks the line is in the wrong place.
Dr. Martin on what it really is:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 729It's a problem of insulin and your cells resisting insulin.
High circulating insulin is the term he uses. Insulin goes up first and stays up for years, quietly, while the blood sugar reading everyone is watching stays inside the range.
Dr. Martin on why it stays hidden that long:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 729Your body will do everything it can to keep you away from diabetes.
He means that as a compliment to your body, not a reassurance. It parks sugar in the muscles, then in the liver, and when the liver is full it turns it into fat. The reading stays fine because the body is working very hard to keep it fine. He calls the symptom list a check engine light. What happens to the liver in the meantime is in it only takes a month of eating sugar to get fatty liver.
What that means for a woman over 60
Nothing on this page is a diagnosis and nothing here replaces your own blood work. What it changes is what you ask for.
His argument is that a fasting glucose and an A1C are late indicators, because they only move once the body has run out of places to park. If insulin is the thing that moves first, then insulin is worth asking about, along with where your weight has gone on and how you feel two hours after a meal.
The food change is the same one either way, and he does not treat prediabetes as a lighter version of it. One study on how fast that can move is worth a read alongside this.
Common questions
Can you get type 2 diabetes after 60?
Yes, and he says it is very common. He estimates half the population is diabetic or prediabetic.
Is diabetes caused by getting older?
No. He says it is strictly a food problem, not genetics and not age.
What foods cause type 2 diabetes?
He names bread, pasta, rice, cereals, sweets, pastries, juice, store-bought milk and alcohol. He calls them the crappy carbs.
Can you get diabetes from eating meat?
He says nobody ever got type 2 diabetes from the animal kingdom, eggs, meat and cheese, or from the plant kingdom either.
Is diabetes a blood sugar problem?
He says it is really a problem of insulin and cells resisting insulin. Blood sugar is what moves last, which is why it can look normal for years.
Read next: Insulin Resistance In Women Over 60: The Signs and What Should Your A1C Be After 60?.
Start where he starts
Blood Sugar Support Formula is what Martin Clinic makes for this. It sits alongside the food change he describes rather than replacing it.
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60-day money-back guarantee. Talk to your own doctor before adding anything alongside a prescription, and keep your blood work going.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
