Tom Hanks Opens Up About Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis

Tom Hanks stopped by The Late Show With David Letterman during his promotional rounds for new movie Captain Phillips and opened up the interview by revealing he’s been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

"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,” Hanks told David Letterman. “You've got Type 2 diabetes, young man.”

"It's controllable,” Hanks added in good humor. “Something's going to kill us all, Dave."

Hanks further explained that no matter how much weight he loses, he won’t be shedding his Type 2 status. "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.' "

Exactly how much did the actor weigh in his high schools years? Just 96 pounds, said Hanks, who admitted he was a “skinny kid.”

Hanks' dedication to gaining and dropping weight for his film roles might be partially to blame, according to some doctors. For instance, Hanks gained about 30 pounds in 1992 to play Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own. For 2000’s Castaway, Hanks dropped an incredible 50 pounds.

"He'll have to watch what he eats very closely, he'll need to exercise regularly but there's no reason he can't live a perfectly normal life," Dr. Holly Phillips told CBS News. "In dramatic weight gain and dramatic weight loss, the equilibrium of the body is just completely off. So that might predispose him to developing type 2 diabetes later."

Many celebrities, including Halle Berry, Paula Deen, Patti LaBelle, Drew Carey and Sherri Shepherd have all openly spoken about their own Type 2 diabetes diagnoses.

– Chelsea Regan

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