Having excess body fat and poor muscle health - the physical condition of 30 million American adults - makes a person 3.5 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, a longterm study revealed Tuesday.
Researchers, led by Australia’s Curtin University, examined the health of 480,000 adults over the course of 14 years and found those who were obese had muscle loss were 19 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who were only obese and 91 percent more likely to develop type 2 than people with only low muscle mass.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease that can lead to nerve, eye, and kidney damage, and is a risk factor for heart problems and several types of cancer.
Lead author and PhD candidate Zhongyang Guan said the group’s findings challenge the common perception that diabetes risk is primarily driven by body weight.
"This suggests we need to look beyond the number on the scales when assessing diabetes risk, as maintaining muscle strength and muscle mass may be just as important as managing body weight,” he said.
And type 2 diabetes can develop relatively quickly with these combination of factors. The study found that close to 15 percent of people with both excess body fat and poor muscle health developed type 2 diabetes within a decade. That’s 4 percent more than people with obesity alone and nearly double the number of those without muscle loss or obesity.
The researchers identified two specific groups of people they said were disproportionately impacted, including women and adults under the age of 60.
Women are more likely to develop obesity because they store fat differently than men and have different hormones. Middle-aged adults between age 40-59 are the most likely to experience obesity due to slowing metabolism, federal data shows.
Better identifying these risks and who is impacted could lead to better diabetes prevention, the study noted.
More than 40 million Americans live with type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, costing the U.S. healthcare system $640 billion.
Keeping muscles strong and healthy through regular exercise and healthy habits could play an important role in reducing the type 2 burden as the American population ages, project senior lead Mario Siervo added.
"Healthcare professionals routinely monitor body weight and obesity, but our findings suggest assessing muscle health could help identify people at high risk earlier," she said.
