There is a piece on World at One right now about type 2 diabetes. Apparantly the cases of it have doubled over the last ten years. 1 in 20 of the population is now diabetic. There was a woman talking who has done a study into the treatments etc and she was saying that in the early stages it is definitely possible to, as she put it, "directly effect the history of your future illness". In other words dietary changes and exercise will help.