Why Does Obesity Cause Diabetes? You Asked Google – Here’s The Answer

Why does obesity cause diabetes? You asked Google – here’s the answer

‘Cause” is a strong word. It means that A results in B happening. Causality is also surprisingly difficult to prove. Most medical studies only show association between A and B, while causality often remains speculative and frustratingly elusive. Obesity and diabetes are no exception.
There are many types of diabetes. All are unified by elevated levels of blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes accounts for less than 10% of cases and results from autoimmune destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas, which produce and release insulin. (In an autoimmune process, antibodies that normally target and fight infection instead target one’s own cells). Type 3c (secondary) diabetes can occur when there has been destruction of the pancreatic beta cells through some other process, such as excessive alcohol, inflammation or surgical resection.
There are also many genetic forms of diabetes, each usually resulting from a single gene mutation that affects pancreatic function in some way. Finally, there is type 2 diabetes (T2D), which accounts for more than 90% of cases globally. Media reports of diabetes, particularly in the context of obesity, usually relate to T2D, the two terms often being used interchangeably.
Only T2D appears to be associated with obesity. Epidemiological studies across the world have shown that the greater one’s body mass index (BMI), the greater the chance of developing T2D. However, this is not the same as saying that obesity causes T2D. The majority of people who are obese will never develop T2D – a fact that exposes the statement “obesity causes diabetes” a Continue reading

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Obesity, Diabetes, and Epigenetic Inheritance

Disease risk can be transmitted epigenetically via egg and sperm cells, a mouse study shows.
While scientists have identified several genetic risk factors for diabetes and obesity, some have proposed epigenetic alterations in gametes as another potential mechanism of disease risk inheritance. Now, a mouse study by researchers in Germany provides new evidence in support of this epigenetic inheritance theory, showing that different diets in otherwise identical mice can determine glucose intolerance and obesity risk in offspring via egg and sperm cells. The team’s findings were published today (March 14) in Nature Genetics.
“The view so far was that [risk] is all determined by genes—it’s fate,” said study coauthor Johannes Beckers of the Helmholtz Zentrum München. “But our findings give back a certain responsibility to the parents. They really have the possibility to affect what offspring inherit in their epigenome.”
Approximately 90 percent of nearly 350 million cases of diabetes worldwide are classified as type 2. In addition to environmental factors often cited to explain the high prevalence of the disease—including poor diets and sedentary lifestyles—several epidemiological and mouse studies have hinted that diet-induced susceptibility to obesity and diabetes, acquired during parents’ lifetimes, can be inherited.
However, previous analyses of the phenomenon have relied on in vivo fertilization to produce offspring, explained Beckers, making it difficult to distinguish heritable, epigenetic determinants in the gametes from other factors that can influen Continue reading

Researchers identify key mechanism by which obesity causes type 2 diabetes

UT Southwestern researchers have identified a major mechanism by which obesity causes type 2 diabetes, which is a common complication of being overweight that afflicts more than 30 million Americans and over 400 million people worldwide.
Researchers found that in obesity, insulin released into the blood by the pancreas is unable to pass through the cells that form the inner lining of blood vessels. As a result, insulin is not delivered to the muscles, where it usually stimulates most of the body's glucose to be metabolized. Blood glucose levels rise, leading to diabetes and its related cardiovascular, kidney and vision problems, said Dr. Philip Shaul, Director of the Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern.
"It was totally unpredicted that a major problem in obesity is the delivery of circulating insulin to your muscle. It was even more surprising that this problem involves immunoglobulins, which are the proteins that make up circulating antibodies," said Dr. Chieko Mineo, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, who is a co-senior author on the report with Dr. Shaul.
The researchers found that obese mice have an unexpected chemical change in their immunoglobulins. "The abnormal immunoglobulins then act on cells lining blood vessels to inhibit an enzyme needed to transfer insulin from the bloodstream into the muscle," said Dr. Shaul, who holds the Associates First Capital Corporation Distinguished Chair in Pediatrics. "Type 2 diabetes patients have the same chemical change, and if we give a mouse immunoglobulins from a type 2 d Continue reading

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• Our Diabetes Testing measures your A1C levels. Your A1C is a measure of your average blood sugar over the previous 3 months. This test requires only a small amount of blood and no fasting.
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For people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, heart disease and their families
For people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, heart disease and their families Continue reading

Why I Told My Diabetes Doctor to Back Off

Let me just say it. I hate diabetes. I hate it. Oh, I know that it can be managed (I do) and that you can live a good, long life (I am — 27 years with Type 1 diabetes). But still, I hate it. And one of the reasons I hate it is that, for me, it has been so difficult to find a good doctor who’s not going to judge me and make me feel bad when my numbers are not in range. Not wanting to be judged, hassled, scolded or embarrassed for my diabetes self care, literally keeps me from going to the doctor as often as I should. Period. And I’m willing to bet that many of my fellow people with diabetes agree with me. So trust me when I say that rarely ever does chastisement motivate. Not for me anyway.
And to complicate my personal diabetes management even further, I work in the diabetes industry, and because I know many of the big players in the field, it impacts my career as well. Would they look at me differently if they knew that for the last week I’ve been struggling with my blood glucose levels and I’ve been averaging around 220? Would I be viewed as any less credible or talented or capable? Would they scoff and say, “She should know better”? Well, I’ve got news for you, diabetes is its own wild animal, and just like being in the wild, it is often unpredictable and random. Diabetes shifts day to day, even moment by moment. If I was confident that every time I took one unit of insulin, my blood sugars would come down in the same exact manner, this condition would be a whole different dynamic. But it’s rarely ever the same. So I struggle on, trying to catch the wav Continue reading