My sister has been 30-40 pounds overweight her whole life, and diagnosed with diabetes almost 20 yrs ago. Recently she had to have a stent placed in her carotid as a result of radiation therapy done almost 20 yrs earlier. During her work-up she had NO evidence of any plaque build up, either in her carotids or her coronaries. She'll be 66 August 1st. She has NEVER eaten a decent diet, and is currently on 2 meds (max dose on 1, close to max on the second) for diabetes as well as 2 meds for high BP. Her BP is fairly well controlled, but her BSs are still elevated and not even close to "normal".

Close to all of my family members on my mom's side are diabetic....probably about 95% of my generation, and quite a few in my kid's generation. Yet there is NO heart disease anywhere. I had one aunt that died about 10 yrs ago that had cardiomyopathy due to a viral infection. Other than that 1 aunt, there are no other relatives with heart disease.

Apparently in my family we're susceptible to diabetes, but not to heart disease.