People who have just been diagnosed with diabetes and have a normal body mass index (BMI) value are more likely to develop serious complications than newly diagnosed obese diabetics. This does not mean, however, that by gaining weight you can reduce this risk – informs the JAMA magazine.
A Northwestern University study of 2625 Americans and Americans over 40 showed that those who had normal body weight at diagnosis had a higher mortality rate than obese or overweight people with diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is usually associated with obesity or being overweight. No wonder that little attention has been paid to people of normal weight so far. In the group of diabetics studied by Northwestern specialists, they accounted for 10 percent.
In addition to obesity and overweight, diabetes risk is also affected by family history, ethnic factors and age. For example, the disease is more common in lean elderly people and in representatives of non-white races. As the lead author, prof. Mercedes R. Carnethon, thin patients with type 2 diabetes may be a special subgroup, despite the lack of burden posed by obesity, extremely vulnerable to the fatal consequences of this disease – for example for genetic reasons.
Doctors usually do not expect diabetes in people of normal weight, which reduces their diagnostic alertness and prevents complications typical of diabetes – for example, heart problems, kidney damage or eye retinal damage (PAP).
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