I’ve spent three decades researching diabetes, a condition that costs more than a trillion dollars to treat every year, and I’ve stumbled on what I consider the most expensive and dangerous words in medicine: “not me.”

Perhaps we’re wired to believe things will turn out fine, and often that serves us well, but I regularly hear “not me” from people who carry several risk factors for type 2 diabetes – such as having a family history of diabetes or being overweight – but feel they are unlikely to actually go on to develop the condition. This is one reason why a diagnosis often comes years too late, after high blood glucose has silently begun to damage blood vessels, nerves and organs, and the cost of treating that damage has already started to climb.

New research released this week by the International Diabetes Federation examines how adults perceive their own risk for the disease.…