Subclinical Glucose Intolerance Increases Risk of Death
Do I need to say any more? Insulin resistance, Syndrome X, metabolic syndrome…whatever you care to call it….is a major risk factor for so many chronic diseases. The sad part is that society is not moving away from refined carbs–a known contributor to insulin resistance. Combine this with the fact that cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, also contributes to insulin resistance, and the increasing incidences of many chronic diseases is no longer a surprise.
Diabetes Care 2001;24:447-453 Subclinical glucose intolerance is associated with an increased risk of death in adults. Dr. Frederick L. Brancati from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland and colleagues used data from the Second National Health and nutrition Examination Survey Mortality Study to compare mortality among adults with known type 2 diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance with adults with normal glucose tolerance. Follow-up lasted 12 to 16 years. Impaired glucose tolerance and undiagnosed diabetes emerged as independent predictors of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. “There was a gradient of mortality associated with abnormal glucose tolerance ranging from a 40% greater risk in adults with impaired glucose tolerance to a 110% greater risk in adults with clinically evident diabetes,” the investigators report. “These associations were independent of established cardiovascular risk factors.” Early detection and treatment of undiagnosed diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance should help reduce mortality in the US, Dr. Brancati and colleagues conclude.