A recent study investigated the effects of good cardiovascular health (CVH) in preventing type 2 diabetes (T2D) among middle-aged individuals.
The results suggest that middle-aged adults with a healthy heart have a reduced risk of developing T2D.
The study also notes that regardless of genetic predisposition, favorable CVH reduces the risk of developing T2D among middle-aged individuals.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source estimate that more than 34 million people in the United States live with diabetes and that approximately 90–95% of these individuals have T2D.
T2D is characterized by peripheral resistance to insulin. This means that tissues such as the gut, liver, and muscles fail to respondTrusted Source to messages from insulin to take up glucose from the bloodstream.
It also means that the liver, which not only absorbs glucose but also produces it, does not respond to insulin to stop this production.
In the early stages, the pancreas secretes additional insulin to overcome the problem, but this corrective process can eventually fail.
Insulin is a hormone that the pancreas produces. It regulates the transport of glucose into the cells of the body, where it serves as a source of energy.
Blood glucose levels that remain too high for long periods can damage various organs and systems of the body.
Previous researchTrusted Source has shown that multiple factors — both genetic and nongenetic — combine to increase a person’s risk of developing T2D.
However, there is also evidenceTrusted Source showing that people can significantly reduce this risk by adopting certain lifestyle measures.
Recently, scientists in the Netherlands embarked on a study to evaluate whether a favorable CVH score reduces the lifetime risk of developing T2D.
They looked at middle-aged individuals with and without a genetic predisposition to T2D. The results appear in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
“Previous studies have shown that cardiovascular risk factors are largely associated with the risk for T2D.”
“However, data on the lifetime risk of incident T2D across different CVH categories was scarce,” she added.
