Data from the United States from the Health Professional’s Follow-up Study in men and the Nurses’ Health Study in women illustrates the increasing risk of diabetes that obesity brings.
Where the populations have changed their lifestyle and become more obese an epidemic of type 2 diabetes has followed on. Environmental risk factors attributed to the global increase obesity include the consumption of high calorie, high fat foods and inadequate physical activity.
Abdominal obesity in humans is a genetically controlled phenotype that constitutes a major risk factor for the development of type II diabetes.
The three major defects are found in type II diabetes: impaired insulin secretion; diminished insulin action in skeletal muscle, liver and adipose tissue; and excessive hepatic glucose production, secondary to hepatic insulin resistance. Of these abnormalities, insulin resistance is a characteristic feature at is commonly seen in both type II diabetes and obesity.
Both diabetes and obesity confer an elevated risk of developing diseases, hypertension and stroke, which can complicate disease management.
In Asia Pacific region, the relative risk of type 2 diabetes increases as BMI above 23 and the association was found to be stronger on younger age. Weight gain in early adulthood is related to a higher risk and earlier onset of type 2 diabetes than is weight gain between 40 and 55 years of age.
Association between diabetes and obesity
