On this morning's KQED's morning radio show, Forum, several doctors including Stanford's Bryant Lin, MD, discussed how diabetes is affecting the health of millions of people globally.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that about half of all adults have diabetes (diagnosed or undiagnosed) or pre-diabetes. Lin and his fellow panelists talked about how changes in our diet and lifestyle have fueled the number of diabetic cases, as well as how genetics can tip the odds against certain patients. Lin mentioned that Asians have a higher rate of diabetes than whites, for example.
Like Lin, I have a family history of diabetes. (Like Lin, I've also struggled to maintain my weight). That history has made me keenly interested in staying abreast of recent findings about diabetes - and I surprised to hear that among young people, high rates of liquor consumption is influencing diabetes rates. It's not just soda intake that we have to watch out for.
Another surprising finding that Lin described was that for pre-diabetics, taking Metformin, a drug that helps control diabetes and blood sugar, can help stave off full-blown diabetes. Eventually, it may become routine to prescribe this medication in certain populations, but Lin said that guidelines haven't caught up with this aspect of diabetes care.
Other factors at play, Lin noted, include the role of the microbiome in promoting or protecting people from diabetes. And people who undergo bariatric surgery for weight management often find their diabetes is cured, but doctors don't understand exactly why that's the case.
Despite the staggering number of people affected, it's clear that we still don't understand all the complex factors that influence this disease.
Previously: Faulty fat cells may help explain how Type 2 diabetes begins, The role of nutrition in diabetes prevention and management, The importance of regular exercise in delaying and treating diabetes and Examining the role of exercise in managing and preventing diabetes
