Are you diabetic?
Are you Asian?
Recent studies have found that type 2 diabetic Asians run a higher risk of death from cancers. This data reported that the risk is increased by 26%, a result obtained from analyzing 21 Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh.
For westerners, the limit for an overweight BMI is 25kg/m2, but for Asians, the limit is 23kg/m2. Because Asians have a higher amount of body fat, it is theorized that they should, therefore, have a lower limit for body mass index values.
Previous studies have concluded that Asians have a lower limit of body mass index (BMI) due to the higher content of body fat. Asians were also found to be more susceptible to have resistance to insulin (increased fat leads to insulin resistance). As a consequence, the presence of insulin resistance increases the incidence and risk of type 2 diabetes compared to individuals of European descent.
Researchers from the United States have extracted data from 19 studies that included about 660,000 East Asians and 112,000 Asians from China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, India, and Bangladesh. All these participants have an average age of 53.9 years old at the start of the study. After 12.7 years, 37,343 cancer deaths have been recorded.
These studies have also taken the variables of gender, age, smoking status, lifestyle habits into account. The authors concluded that type 2 diabetes in Asians led to a 26% increase in deaths from any form of cancer.
The association between type 2 diabetes and cancer deaths in Asians was statistically significant. The organs affected by cancer included liver, pancreas, gallbladder, colorectal and breast. It is also observed that type 2 diabetics have doubled the risk of liver cancers, thyroid cancers, and renal (kidney) cancers. Endometrial (lining of the uterus) and breast cancers occurred 2.7 and 1.7 times more likely, respectively, in Asians with diabetes than those without it.
With all the studies and data that have been found, it can be said that type 2 diabetes can be considered as a risk factor for cancers in Asians.
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Diabetes increases the risk of cancer in Asians: A study. Deccan Chronicle. Accessed 3/9/2017.
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