Diabetes in middle age could slash up to a decade off your life, new research shows.
A University of Oxford study of more than half a million Chinese people found those diagnosed with the condition before 50 lived an average of nine years less than those without the condition.
That figure rose to ten years for patients in rural areas.
Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked with being overweight, is known to double the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
But this research provides the most concrete figures to date – showing that those diagnosed by 50 are twice as likely to die before they reach 75.
Lead investigator Professor Zhengming Chen, of the University of Oxford, warned this does not have to be the case.