actually, my dad has type II.....and it was brought on by old age (he is 85) and not being overweight (he is thin as a rail)....apparently this is very common for asians.
as for the prostate cancer, it had already spread to his hip and one of his legs, and also because of his age, my brother (he is a doctor) recommended against surgery and chemo. His quality of life would have been nonexistent. They didn't discover it until one day he just collapsed while walking.
I think they did put him on some sort of program of hormone injections to help boost his strength and manage the pain and now it is about 18 months later, his strength and energy has come back (although he did look like he aged 10 years in the past 2). so whatever they did seem to work, as test has shown that the cancer hasn't spread (and in fact seemed to have diminished). Not bad since when he was first diagnosed the doctors estimated that he would only have about a year left.