We have all heard the warnings. Scientists have been ringing the alarm that rising global temperatures may impact public health as a consequence of severe weather conditions that may lead to the spread of infectious diseases and food shortages.
Well, if you weren’t scared before, now, scientists are investigating whether climate change might be linked to… wait for it… type 2 diabetes.
Talk about a nightmare. Between 1996 and 2009, as global temperatures increased, the percentage of Americans struggling with diabetes also climbed. , according to a study published in the journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care on Monday.
“We were surprised, though, by the magnitude of the effect size,” a researcher at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands and lead author of the study, Lisanne Blauw said.
Blauw and her team calculated that a 1-degree Celsius rise in environmental temperature could account for more than 100,000 new diabetes cases per year in the USA alone.
Keep in mind, this is an observational study simply that points to an association between climate and diabetes, not a causation.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that about one out of every three Americans is destined to develop Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers have forwarded the hypothesis to explain the correlation that cooler temperatures activate a type of body fat called brown fat, or brown adipose tissue.
“The function of brown fat tissue is to burn fat to generate heat, which is important to prevent a decline in body temperature during cold exposure. Therefore, we hypothesize that brown fat plays a role in the mechanism underlying the association between outdoor temperature and diabetes,” Blauw said. “In warmer climates, brown fat may be less activated, which may causally lead to insulin resistance and diabetes.”
Scientists also note that climate change causing deadly heat waves; compromised air quality; hazardous weather events; food and water-related illnesses; mosquito- and tick-borne infections; wildfires; personal depression and shock.
What a world we live in!
