Malnutrition-related diabetes is a mysterious form of diabetes that affects tens of millions of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Rarely do its victims, who are mostly skinny and poor teens and young adults, survive more than a year following diagnosis.
Their young age and frail appearance point to type 1 diabetes (T1D), yet insulin shots often are ineffective and may even result in low blood sugar deaths. Additionally, none of the individuals seem to have type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is often linked to obesity. Despite the fact that the illness was originally documented about 70 years ago, physicians are still unaware of how to treat it due to a lack of research on the condition. The founding director of Einstein’s Global Diabetes Institute, Meredith Hawkins, M.D., M.S., has led an international collaborative effort for the past 12 years to identify the underlying metabolic defects that result in malnutrition-related diabetes, which is an essential first step in developing effective treatments. Dr. Hawkins and colleagues have shown that malnutrition-related diabetes is significantly metabolically distinct from T1D and T2D and should be regarded as a distinct type of diabetes in the first thorough examination of patients with this poorly known condition. Their research was recently published in the journal Diabetes Care.
“Current scientific literature offers no guidance on managing malnutrition-related diabetes, which is rare in high-income nations but exists in more than 60 low- and middle-income countries,” said Dr. Hawkins, professor of medicine and the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Medicine at Einstein. “The doctors in those countries read Western medical journals, so they don’t learn about malnutrition-related diabetes and don’t suspect it in their patients. We hope our findings will increase awareness of this disease, which is so devastating to so many people and will pave the way for effective treatment strategies.”
In cooperation with Dr. Hawkins and other members of the Global Diabetes Institute, the study was carried out at the renowned Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. The researchers conducted comprehensive metabolic assessments on 20 males aged 19 to 45 who were selected as likely to develop malnutrition-related diabetes using cutting-edge methods for measuring insulin secretion and action. The same metabolic tests were performed on groups of people with T1D, T2D, and healthy controls for the sake of comparison. Males make up roughly 85% of those who acquire diabetes from malnutrition, hence the study’s subjects were exclusively male to reduce sex-specific variability.
In cooperation with Dr. Hawkins and other members of the Global Diabetes Institute, the study was carried out at the renowned Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. The researchers conducted comprehensive metabolic assessments on 20 males aged 19 to 45 who were selected as likely to develop malnutrition-related diabetes using cutting-edge methods for measuring insulin secretion and action. The same metabolic tests were performed on groups of people with T1D, T2D, and healthy controls for the sake of comparison. Males make up roughly 85% of those who acquire diabetes from malnutrition, hence the study’s subjects were exclusively male to reduce sex-specific variability.
Source: This news is originally published by scitechdaily