Tom Hanks says he has type-2 diabetes

CONSUMMATE ACTOR. Hanks at a screening of 'Captain Phillips' in New York. Photo: AFP

LOS ANGELES, USA - Two-time Academy-Award winner Tom Hanks has stunned fans by revealing on a US late-night talk show that he's living with Type 2 diabetes.

Hanks, 57, was promoting his new movie "Captain Phillips" - about the capture of a US cargo ship by Somali pirates - when he made the surprise disclosure on CBS television's "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday, October 7.

"I went to the doctor and he said, 'You know those high-blood sugar numbers you've been dealing with since you were 36? Well, you've graduated. You've got type 2 diabetes, young man,'" the film star recalled his physician as saying.

Hanks, who won best-actor Oscars for "Philadelphia" in 1994 and "Forrest Gump" in 1995, has often changed his weight for the roles he plays - bulking up for "A League of Their Own" in 1992 then shedding the pounds for "Cast Away" in 2000.

Medical experts say that such wide fluctuations can be a factor in the development of Type 2 diabetes, by far the most common form of the disease that affects 25.8 million Americans.

Weight in high school

Looking fit and healthy, Hanks told Letterman that weight loss at this stage probably wouldn't help.

"My doctor said, 'If you can weigh as much as you weighed in high school you will essentially be completely healthy and will not have Type 2 diabetes' - and I said, 'Well, I'm gonna have Type 2 diabetes 'cause there is no way I can weigh as much as I did in high school.'"

Hanks, who stands 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall, said he weighed 96 pounds (nearly 44 kilograms) in high school.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Type 2 diabetes is "usually associated with older age, obesity, and physical inactivity, family history of Type 2 diabetes, or a personal history of gestational diabetes."

It can be controlled through healthy food choices, physical activity, and weight loss, although insulin or oral medication might also be necessary.

Based on current trends, by 2050, one in 3 American adults will have diabetes, which in 2007 was the nation's 7th leading cause of death, the Centers for Disease Control said. - Rappler.com