Lifestyle's Impact on Diabetic Risk

Here's another reason to start living a healthy way of life. A new study finds adult lifestyle has more influence on your chances of developing diabetes than childhood experience.

Previous research revealed poor health in later life is programmed by development in the womb and as an infant. But this latest research examined people from birth to adulthood, and study authors say the life you lead as an adult is the biggest influence on your risk for diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is strongly related to overweight and lack of physical activity and accounts for 90 percent of diabetes. The World Health Organization predicts the number of people with type 2 diabetes will more than double in the next 25 years. For this latest study, researchers from Newcastle University looked at data collected as part of the Thousand Families Study. The data followed children born in 1947 into adulthood. Study authors looked at the participants' body fat and waist-hip ratio along with other lifestyle elements. They found those with a higher body fat and higher waist-hip ratio were more likely to have insulin resistance which can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Lead author Dr. Mark Pearce says, "It's never too late to start living a healthy lifestyle -- and even though our study shows that childhood experience has limited impact on insulin resistance in adulthood, parents still have a role to play in introducing their children to eating a healthy diet and physical exercise, so they can develop good habits that will hopefully last throughout adulthood and old age." Diabetes experts say this study further emphasizes the importance of eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly.

SOURCE: Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 2005