A new study conducted by scientists from the University of Glasgow found that people from South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) should pay more attention to physical exercises than Europeans to prevent diabetes mellitus.
The results of this work, which revealed new data on ethnic differences between patients, were published in the specialized journal Diabetologia.
In the UK, it has long been observed that many natives of South Asia have a 3-5 times higher risk of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Moreover, the disease develops them a dozen years earlier than in Europe, and affects people with a relatively low BMI.
Even those Asians who are not diagnosed with diabetes have slightly elevated blood sugar levels compared to Europeans. Experts are not sure why this is happening, but believe that this population has a genetically determined increased resistance of the body cells to insulin effects.
Key factors that influence insulin resistance include:.
• Low level of physical activity.
• Significant fat deposits.
• Relatively low muscle mass.
In the current study, British scientists attempted to clarify the relationship between sugar levels and physical activity in South Asians living in the United Kingdom, and compare these results with those of the indigenous Europeans.
The study involved 100 Asians and 100 Europeans, all of whom were men aged 40-70 years, all residing in Scotland and were not diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. They evaluated insulin resistance, blood sugar level, exercise tolerance and other risk factors.
The results revealed that in South Asians the main problems are more fat deposition, worse physical shape and increased insulin resistance compared to European men.
Dr. Nazim Ghuri, a member of the Institute of Cardiology and Medical Sciences, who was one of the authors of the study, said:
"Poor physical shape is the most important factor associated with increased insulin resistance and high sugar levels in middle-aged Asian men".
His colleague, Professor Sattar, concluded: "These results will be of great importance for the manuals on physical training, which today completely ignore the ethnic aspects. Many leading doctors and scientists already now recommend to consider obesity in persons from South Asia a BMI of 25, rather than 30 kg / m2, as in Europe ".
medbe. en.