Which came first? Diabetes or obesity?

This week’s article talked about obesity and how some of the pathways that trigger in our bodies that we are full may not be working properly.  These chemicals that signal we are full and can reduce or stop our food intake are called insulin and leptin.  These chemicals work together so that when there are high levels of insulin and leptin we decrease our food intake and increase our energy spent, but when these levels are low we increase our food intake and decrease the amount of energy we spend.  The article stated that there is a balance between the chemical levels, food intake and energy expenditure.  When and if something gets off balance, something in the body goes awry one of these possibilities is obesity.
One theory out there is that obese individuals have a hard time lowering their food intake because of something called resistance.  These leptin and insulin levels that used to be enough to tell us to stop eating are no longer at high enough concentrations so our brains and our bodies don’t know to stop eating. The increased glucose from the foods we eat can’t all be used in energy so it is stored in the body for later use as fat cells, thus causing a build up in fat stores and leading to obesity.
Some articles that I found focus more on insulin resistance as the key factor rather than leptin.  According to one article, obesity is actually said to promote insulin resistance because the body no longer recognizes the smaller amounts of insulin to signal a cessation of eating. To find more about this article you can check out this link: http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/insulin-resistance-syndrome
This diagram depicts other things that can also happen when the body is resistant to insulin.
http://table.ta.funpic.org/04/insulin-resistant-symptoms.html
There is also a link between type 2 diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by the body producing insulin, but not enough for the body to use it correctly, thus resulting in insulin resistance.  To learn more about Type 2 Diabetes, follow this link: http://diabetes.webmd.com/diabetes-men
So people that are overweight are more likely to develop insulin resistance and thus diabetes, but people that have diabetes are also more likely to become overweight.  Therefore it is still unclear which comes first; it is kind of like the chicken or the egg debate.  Scientists do propose that there is a genetic link however, so a word of caution to those that have either obesity or diabetes in their family; take care of your body, eat right and exercise so that you don’t have to find out which comes first for you, obesity or insulin resistance.