Risk of developing diabetes rises if you can’t pull on your old jeans
IF YOU cannot fit into the trousers you wore when you were 21 you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a professor has warned.
Presenting data to a leading diabetes conference, Prof Roy Taylor, from Newcastle University, said that people’s waists should be the same size now as they were when they were 21.
And if people can no longer fit into the same-sized trousers, they are “carrying too much fat”, he said.
The average waistline for men in England is 38.5in, the latest NHS Digital figures from 2019 said, up from 36.7in in 1993. Among men aged 16 to 24 the average trouser size was 34in in 2019, compared with 39.6in among aged 45 to 54.
Prof Taylor made the comments at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. He added that this study found people of normal weight with type 2 diabetes could “achieve remission” by losing weight.
Eight of the 12 people studied managed to “get rid” of their condition by losing 10 to 15 per cent of their body weight, Prof Taylor said. The participants, who all had the condition despite having a “normal” body mass index (BMI), managed to reduce the levels of fat in the liver and pancreas, and the activity of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas was deemed to be “restored”.
Prof Taylor, the principal investigator, said there is an assumption that type 2 diabetes has a different cause among those who are not overweight. “This means that, unlike those who are overweight, those who are of normal weight aren’t usually advised to lose weight before being given diabetes drugs and insulin. Instead, there’s a tendency to start them on insulin and other medication at a much earlier stage,” he said.
The participants, who had an average BMI of 24.5, followed a weight-loss programme that included a low-calorie liquid diet for two weeks. This was followed by four to six weeks where they received support to maintain their new weight. They completed three rounds of this programme until they lost 10 to 15 per cent of their body weight.
After weight loss was achieved, scans showed reductions in the fat in the liver and eight of the 12 participants saw their type 2 diabetes go into remission, which was defined as having blood-sugar levels under control and patients no longer needing any medication.
Prof Taylor said although the results were preliminary they demonstrate that diabetes is “not caused by obesity but by being too heavy for your own body”.
“It’s due to having too much fat in your liver and pancreas, whatever your BMI,” he added. “In the liver, this excess fat prevents insulin from working normally. In the pancreas, it causes the beta cells to stop producing insulin. As a rule of thumb, your waist size should be the same now as when you were 21. If you can’t get into the same size trousers now, you are carrying too much fat and therefore at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even if you aren’t overweight.”
Dr Lucy Chambers, of Diabetes UK, which funded this latest research, known as RETUNE, said: “We welcome these early results and eagerly look forward to the full results.”