Body Fat and Diabetes

Where your body stores the majority of its fat could potentially be the key to finding a person's risk of Type 2 diabetes. An observational study published in the American Medical Association's special issue on obesity points to abdominal fat as being the biggest culprit.
The study tracked 6,000 participants in the Dallas Heart Study and is the largest of its kind to assess the diabetes risk of a multiethnic composition of the country as a whole.
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center were able, using imaging techniques, to predict diabetes in obese subjects, years before the disease presented itself. Participants were tested for body composition and biomarkers such as insulin resistance and blood-sugar levels and researchers concluded that body mass index, HDL cholesterol, and body-fat percentage did not impact Type 2 diabetes risk, but the level of abdominal fat did.
"Diabetes was linked to fat around the organs, not subcutaneous fat, not total body fat, and not body mass index," said lead researcher James de Lemos, MD, professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern. Previous research showed that fat in the lower body can have a protective effect against heart disease and diabetes in some people, especially women, but positive effects of fat storage were not analyzed in this study.
In those who had normal fasting glucose at the beginning of the study, age, ethnicity, and additional weight gain over the course of the eight year study appeared to determine their diabetes risk.
"Additional weight gain in obese people was the most powerful predictor of who would develop diabetes or prediabetes," de Lemos says. "If clinicians can prevent additional weight gain, we can do a lot to prevent diabetes."
de Lemos believes this information can be used in a clinical setting to predict which obese patients will develop diabetes and to help target diabetes-prevention therapies. Lifestyle interventions, prescription weight-loss supplements, and even weight loss surgery are all actions that can be taken if the person is suspected to have a higher diabetes risk. "Some therapies can carry substantial risk and expense and might be best targeted toward those who are high-risk for diabetes," said de Lemos.
However, it is important to remember that not all obese patients are alike and should not be treated that way. "There's no association between markers of general adipositivity and prediabetes. Obesity is a heterogeneous or variable disorder, and we can characterize specific subgroups that have a greater or lesser risk of developing diabetes- with clinical implications," said de Lemos.
If you are a diabetic and do not currently see a podiatrist, call our Bristol office to make an appointment.
Richard E. Ehle, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Diabetic Foot Care in CT
Podiatrist in Bristol, CT
Visit our website, friend and like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.