Welcome, bradd!
I believe this question has been asked before.
The novel had no reference to Michael and diabetes. The only reference to any illness was a notation that Michael had been discharged from the Marines in WWII after suffering "a debilitating wound." In GFII, he swallows a pill during his train ride from Tahoe to Miami to see Roth. We don't know what the pill is for. A guess: diabetes was treated with insulin injections in those days. I'm guessing it was a Miltown, the popular tranquilizer of the era. (Senator Geary popped one, too, in Michael's office.) But, if memory serves, others here seemed to find hints of some illness earlier on.


Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu,
E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu...
E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu
Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.