New Research Finds That Men And Women Have Different Type 2 Diabetes Risk Factors
Over 37 million Americans currently have diabetes, with between 90 and 95 percent of these cases being type 2 diabetes, according to the CDC.
Type 2 diabetes causes cells to respond abnormally to insulin– also known as insulin resistance. So, the pancreas attempts to produce more insulin in order to get the cells to respond.
Over time, though, the pancreas cannot keep up– leading to rising blood sugar, which can damage the body and lead to other severe health problems such as kidney disease, heart disease, and vision loss.
There are also several risk factors for type 2 diabetes, including obesity, age, physical inactivity, and genetics.
According to a new study conducted by researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, though, there may be a gender predisposition gap.
More specifically, the team found that women and men with diabetes predisposition actually have different risk factors forecasting prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Low serum levels of adiponectin– an adipose tissue protein– among healthy women was a strong independent predictor of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in the future.
Conversely, low serum levels of IGFBP-1, a liver protein, were a strong independent predictor of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes among healthy men.
In other words, these proteins– which represent measures of insulin sensitivity in the liver and muscle (IGFBP-1) and adipose tissue (adiponectin)– could predict if someone is at an increased risk of getting type 2 diabetes in the next decade.
ivanko80 – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
A past study, which was performed in 2016 in Shanghai, revealed similar gender differences. That research found that the risk of type 2 diabetes among men with prediabetes was drastically reduced if they increased muscle mass and physical activity.
On the flip side, that study found that women who had prediabetes needed to avoid abdominal obesity and any increase in their waist circumference.
So, according to Kerstin Brismar, a professor of diabetes research, the latest study starts to explain why there was an observed preventive lifestyle gender difference in the 2016 research.
“The proteins we studied in men and women increase with increased muscle mass and physical activity (IGFBP-1) and with reduced abdominal obesity and calorie restriction (adiponectin),” Brismar said.
Additionally, the findings may also reveal why regular exercise is not enough to reduce type 2 diabetes risk among women with abdominal obesity.
“We have previously shown that waist circumference was a strong independent predictor of type 2 diabetes in women,” Brismar explained.
“And now, we were able to show that it was linked to reduced production of adiponectin, a protein/hormone produced in the adipose tissue to– among other things– protect against cell stress.”
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Frontiers in Endocrinology, visit the link here.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:Science