Diabetes Eclipses Obesity As Health Risk

Filed in archive News on September 29, 2006

It's the latest study, and the hottest topic in diabetes right now. Many researchers and medical experts believe, despite what we are constantly told, that obesity is not the giant health risk we believe it to be. Rather, diabetes is the culprit.

Diabetes is a strong predictor of acute organ failure and early death for obese or non-obese patients alike, eclipsing even obesity without diabetes, according to researchers here.

In the absence of diabetes, a patient's body mass index (BMI) did not foretell organ failure or in-hospital death, according to a large prospective cohort study of 15,408 middle-aged adults, reported in the Sept 25 issue of Critical Care.

By contrast, diabetics had a threefold higher rate of organ failure over three years from baseline versus non-diabetics, said David Mannino, M.D., of the University of Kentucky here, and colleagues here and at Emory in Atlanta. Within three years, 5.4% of those with diabetes died, compared with 1.6% of those without diabetes.

Of course, the two often go hand in hand. What do you think?