Health
Early Diabetes Symptom Predicts Cancer
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Early Diabetes Symptom Predicts Cancer
From: Duke and the Doctor
Date: Friday July 18, 2003
Subject: Early Diabetes Symptom Predicts Cancer
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News
July 11, 2003 -- A condition that indicates early type 2 diabetes is a marker for cancer death.
The finding comes from a huge, long-term U.S. study of health and nutrition. More than 3,000 adults enrolled from 1976 to 1980. As part of their physical exam, they were tested for glucose tolerance. When a person's glucose tolerance is impaired, they're on the road to diabetes.
About 15% of American adults have impaired glucose tolerance, a condition of abnormally elevated sugars not high enough yet to be classified as type 2 diabetes.
But that's not the only risk. Johns Hopkins researcher Frederick L. Brancati, MD, and colleagues find that people with impaired glucose tolerance have a high risk of cancer death. Compared with people with normal glucose tolerance:
They're nearly twice as likely to die of any form of cancer.
They're more than four times as likely to die of colon cancer.
They're more than 50% more likely to die of lung cancer.
"By contrast, adults with outright diabetes had little or no association with risk of cancer death," Brancati notes in a news release.
It's not clear what's going on. Brancati and colleagues note that when the body can't tolerate glucose, it tries to compensate by producing more and more insulin. It may be that these extremely high insulin levels promote the growth of cancer cells.
The findings appear in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
What You Can Do
If you're overweight -- and especially if your waist size is supersized -- get your glucose tolerance checked. If you have impaired glucose tolerance, act right away. The key: Exercise and healthy eating.
Maybe you've tried this before. But if you have impaired glucose tolerance, there's no time to lose. You can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes -- and you might avoid cancer as well.
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