SINGAPORE: Asians may develop diabetes even at lower levels of obesity than Caucasians, early findings from one of the largest studies on diabetes here show.
This is because they seem less able to produce enough insulin in response to spikes in blood sugar levels.
The finding means Asians may have to watch their weight, diets and lifestyles more closely, to avoid increasing their risk of Type 2 diabetes, said the study’s principal investigator, Dr Sue-Anne Toh of the National University Hospital.
Insulin helps to regulate blood sugar levels by allowing the body to convert sugar from food to energy or to store it for future use, thus keeping diabetes at bay.
Obesity is seen as a red flag for diabetes because weight gain causes the body to become more resistant to insulin.
Dr Toh shared preliminary results of the Assessing Progression to Type 2 Diabetes (APT-2D) study on Monday and urged more people of different ethnicities to sign up, in order for results to be more representative and definitive.
About 1,300 participants have been recruited so far, out of which about 900 have been screened. This is short of the 2,300 that researchers hope to get by June next year.
The findings of the study were based on 140 participants – half are pre-diabetic while the others have normal blood glucose levels.
Despite the small participant size, Dr Toh said she was surprised by the observations so early on. “The common perception is that Asians are not overweight and we look slim, so we are less prone to diabetes. But the results show that it might not be the case,” she said.
Insulin secretion in the pre-diabetic individuals was 36 per cent lower than in normal individuals, researchers found. This means the pre-diabetics were less able to produce insulin to compensate for spikes in sugar levels.
Other studies show Caucasians are “far more able to compensate for spikes in blood sugar as compared to Asians”, said Dr Toh. A European study that investigated the probability of diabetes in different ethnic groups found 8 per cent of participants of Chinese descent had diabetes – four times their European counterparts. The participants had a body mass index of 23. (CONTINUED)
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