Pig out, pay the price
Gaining 3kg in 10 years ups the risk of diabetes
PUTTING on just 3.1kg over a decade can raise your risk of type 2 diabetes by more than half, research has found.
Those who are a healthy weight run the risk of becoming diabetic simply by allowing the weight to creep on over the years.
Scientists at Cambridge University say that if everyone aged 30-60 maintained their weight, one in five cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented.
Their study found a weight gain of less than 3.1kg over 10 years increased someone’s chances of getting this form of diabetes by 52%.
Storing excess fat is thought to make the body resistant to insulin – the hormone that controls your blood sugar levels – which causes the condition.
The growing diabetes crisis costs the National Health Service £10 billion (R167.5bn) a year. About 3.5 million Britons have the illness, with the number soaring over the past decade.
This has been fuelled by rising rates of type 2 diabetes, often caused by being overweight, unlike type 1, where the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells and is not linked to lifestyle.
Doctors usually focus on those at particular risk who are obese or have high blood sugar levels. But the latest study, which analysed data from more than 33 000 Swedish people given medical examinations a decade apart between 1990 and 2013, concludes that focusing on creeping weight gain in the population at large could be twice as effective.
The 52% increased risk of type 2 diabetes was found in those who added just one point to their body mass index.
For a person of average height, this worked out at just 3kg over a decade.
While the risk of type 2 diabetes leaps for those who put on this much weight, their chance of being diagnosed is still much lower than for those who are obese. However, the study suggests if everyone kept to the same weight, one in five diabetes diagnoses could be avoided, compared to just one in 10 by focusing on sending obese, high-risk people for help to lose weight.
Publishing their findings in the journal BMC Public Health, the researchers said that while sticking to the same weight can be “challenging”, it should be seen as an important goal.
Health officials could consider encouraging people to walk and cycle or eat more fruit and vegetables to avoid middle-age spread.
Lead author Dr Adina Feldman, from Cambridge’s epidemiology unit, said: “It is important to support people in maintaining a healthy weight and healthy lifestyle behaviour and not to wait until people show signs of disease or are at a high risk.
“We need to consider strategies for diabetes prevention to support healthy lifestyles which can reduce weight gain and improve health in the longer term. There is not likely to be a simple solution, but we need more research to develop strategies that work.”
Insulin normally tells the body to absorb and break down sugar in the blood, so not producing enough of the hormone or becoming resistant to it causes blood sugar levels to rise. Diabetes can then cause complications, including kidney failure, stroke and blindness.
The research was conducted in conjunction with the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umea University in Sweden. The findings took into account sex, age and family history of diabetes. – Daily Mail