Sophia Antipolis, France – 31 Aug 2020: Shedding some weight could prevent or even reverse diabetes, according to recent breaking research presented at ESC Congress 2020.
In 2019, approximately 463 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes, of which the vast majority (around 90%) had type 2 diabetes. Diabetes increases the risk of stroke, coronary heart disease, and death from cardiovascular disease. Obesity is the major modifiable cause of type 2 diabetes, while genetic make-up also act as a marker to identify individuals with a greater likelihood of developing the condition.
“Because we are born with our genes, it might be possible to pinpoint early in life who has a high chance of developing diabetes during their lifetime,” said principal investigator Professor Brian Ference of the University of Cambridge, UK, and University of Milan, Italy. “We conducted this study to find out if combining inherited risk with current body mass index (BMI) could identify people at the highest risk of developing diabetes. Prevention efforts could then concentrate on these individuals.”
445,765 participants from the UK Biobank were studied. The average age of participants was 57.2 years and 54% were women. Using 6.9 million genes, hereditary risk of diabetes was assessed. To calculate BMI in kg/m2, height and weight were measured at enrolment. According to genetic risk of diabetes and BMI, the participants were divided.
It was found that those in the highest BMI group (average 34.5 kg/m2) had an 11-fold increased risk of diabetes compared to participants in the lowest BMI group (average 21.7 kg/m2). The highest BMI group had a considerable likelihood of developing diabetes than all other BMI groups, regardless of genetic risk.
“The findings indicate that BMI is a much more powerful risk factor for diabetes that genetic predisposition,” said Professor Ference.
The findings demonstrate that diabetes could be prevented by keeping BMI below the cut-off which triggers abnormal blood sugar. Therefore, people should regularly assess both BMI and blood sugar to prevent diabetes.
Also, diabetes could be reversed if weight is lost in the early stages before permanent damage occurs.
