Tom Hanks has Type 2 diabetes; says, ‘I can manage ... I shall!’

Tom Hanks is hard to beat when it comes to mixing good spirits with bad health news.

The smiling “Captain Phillips� star announced Monday on “Late Night With David Letterman� that he has Type 2 diabetes. He followed up with a tweet Tuesday declaring his intention to triumph over the disease.

“Yep, I have #2 diabetes,� he wrote. “Type 1 is VERY SERIOUS! Type 2 I can manage with good habits. I shall! Hanx�

Hanks, 57, had gone into a bit more detail with Letterman the previous night.

“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! You’ve got Type 2 diabetes, young man.’�

Hey, at least the doc called him young, right?

Turns out the doc told him he could nix the disease if he were to get his weight down to what he weighed in high school.

But there was a big problem with that. Or perhaps more aptly, a small one.

“I weighed 96 pounds in high school,� Hanks blurted. “I was a very skinny boy. And you know, most of that was that big white Afro that I wore back in the ‘70s.�

So good luck to Tom in, as he put it, “maintaining the temple.�

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