Abdominal obesity: Diabetes protector?

Type 2 diabetes is a health problem that can be prevented with good nutrition and the practice of habitual sport, following healthy lifestyle habits that allow us to keep sugar under control.However, there are many myths about this disease that are gradually dismantled thanks to scientific research.

The generalized belief is that accumulating fat around the belly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, a study of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Virginia (United States) suggests that variations that occur naturallyIn our genes they can lead some people to store fat at the waist, but also to protect them from diabetes.

This unexpected discovery offers a more nuanced vision of the role of obesity in diabetes and other related health problems.It could also pave the way to a more personalized medicine, that is, treatments adapted to each person.

«There are more and more evidence of the existence of a metabolically healthy obesity.In this case, people who would normally be at risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes because they are obese are protected from the adverse effects of their obesity.In our study, we find a genetic bond that can explain how this happens in certain individuals, ”explained Metek, one of those responsible for the research, which has been published in the scientific journal 'Elife'.

As medicine becomes more sophisticated, understanding the role of natural genetic variations will play an important role in ensuring that patients receive better and more adapted treatments.

Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of diabetes, stroke and other serious health problems.One of the parameters used by doctors to determine if a patient suffers from metabolic syndrome is abdominal obesity.It is usually calculated by comparing the patient's waist and hip measures.But Civek's research suggests that, at least for some patients, it may not be so simple.

In the future, doctors may want to check the genes of a patient to determine the best way to guide the person along the way of good health.«We discover that among the hundreds of regions of our genomes that increase our propensity to accumulate excess fat in the abdomen, there are five that have an unexpected role.To our surprise, these five regions decrease the individual risk of type 2 diabetes, ”Yonathan Aberra, lead author of the study, has detailed.

The sophisticated method developed by CIVELEK and its collaborators to identify the relevant variants and their possible effects will be useful for future research on metabolic syndrome and other conditions.

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