Body chemistry changes that lead to type 2 diabetes begin several years before symptoms become apparent, research has shown.02-07-2009
The researchers followed 6,538 UK civil servants over almost 10 years, during which 505 cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed.
They examined how the volunteers' blood glucose levels and the capacity of their tissues to respond to insulin - known as insulin sensitivity - changed over time.
Nigel Denby’s comment: This study is exciting because rather than looking at people who already have Diabetes or are likely to go onto to develop the condition, it looked at healthy people and tracked similarities between those who went on to develop the disease. This is important because it’s a step towards identifying people who show no visible signs of being likely to develop diabetes and could lead to diabetes screening at a much earlier stage than seen before.
