Obesity can reduce the life expectancy of diabetes patients by up to eight years, British researchers said on Wednesday.
Professor Ross Lawrenson of the University of Surrey in Guildford, southern England said a high body mass index (BMI), the standard measure for calculating obesity, is a leading risk factor for people suffering from diabetes.
“Obese people with diabetes have decreased life expectancy and increased mortality,” Lawrenson said in an interview.
Increased risk of death has been shown before, but the eight-year figure is relatively new, he added.
The research, which was presented at the Diabetes UK medical conference in Birmingham, England, also showed people with diabetes have double the risk of dying.
Lawrenson and his colleagues used a government research database to study 44,188 patients with Type 2, or adult onset, diabetes. Excess weight is the most common and avoidable risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes less sensitive to the effects of insulin as weight increases. To compensate, the pancreas produces more insulin which then causes insulin resistance.
Sufferers with Type 1 diabetes produce little or no insulin. It is more common in children and adolescents and accounts for 10-15 percent of cases.
In another study by British researchers finds obesity in children may start at home. Why? They find many parents don’t notice obesity in “their” children.
The reason that’s a problem is seriously overweight children are at risk of type 2 diabetes. In the past that was only seen in adults.