Diabetes: heredity or BMI?
Body mass index is a more powerful risk factor for diabetes than genetics
Anna Yudina, "Scientific Russia"
According to the latest research presented at the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology in the Late-Breaking Science report: The impact of BMI and genes on the risk of developing diabetes – new insights from the UK Biobank, weight loss can prevent or even reverse diabetes.
In 2019, about 463 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes, of which the vast majority (about 90%) had type 2 diabetes. Diabetes doubles the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and death from cardiovascular diseases. Obesity is the main variable factor provoking the development of type 2 diabetes, although genetic analysis can also identify people more likely to develop this disease.
"Since we are born with our genes, it would be possible to accurately determine at an early age who has a high chance of developing diabetes during life," said principal investigator Professor Brian Ferens from the University of Cambridge (UK) and the University of Milan (Italy). – We conducted this study to find out whether the combination of hereditary risk with the current body mass index (BMI) can identify people with the highest risk of developing diabetes. Therefore, prevention efforts can be focused on these people."
The study involved 445,765 participants of the UK Biobank. The average age was 57.2 years, 54% were women. The inherited risk of diabetes was estimated using 6.9 million genes. Height and weight were measured to calculate BMI in kg/m2. Participants were divided into five groups according to the genetic risk of diabetes. They were also divided into five groups by BMI.
The participants were followed up to the average age of 65.2 years. During this period, 31,298 people developed type 2 diabetes.
Participants in the group with the highest BMI (on average 34.5 kg/m2) had an 11-fold higher risk of diabetes compared to participants in the group with the lowest BMI (on average 21.7 kg/m2). The group with the highest BMI was more likely to develop diabetes than all other groups with BMI, regardless of genetic risk.
"The results show that BMI is a much more powerful risk factor for diabetes than genetic predisposition," Professor Ferens said.
The researchers then used statistical methods to assess whether people with a high BMI would be even more likely to have diabetes if they were overweight for an extended period of time. They found that the duration of an increased BMI did not affect the risk of diabetes.
Professor Ferens said: "This suggests that when people cross a certain threshold of BMI, their chances of getting diabetes increase and remain at the same high-risk level, regardless of how long they have been overweight."
He noted that the threshold is probably different for each person and there will be a BMI at which they begin to develop abnormal blood sugar levels. Professor Ferens said: "The results show that most cases of diabetes can be avoided if the BMI is kept below the threshold that causes abnormal blood sugar levels. This means that in order to prevent diabetes, it is necessary to regularly assess BMI and blood sugar levels. Weight is crucial when a person begins to develop problems with blood sugar levels."
"It is also possible to reverse diabetes by losing weight early on before irreversible damage occurs," Professor Ferens said.
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