{"id":39958,"date":"2015-10-30T13:01:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T23:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=39958"},"modified":"2021-06-25T15:37:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T01:37:41","slug":"new-way-to-measure-if-people-are-pre-diabetic-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/10\/30\/new-way-to-measure-if-people-are-pre-diabetic-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"New way to measure if people are pre-diabetic discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Wei Jia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A panel of markers have been discovered that helps identify if people are pre-diabetic by measuring the fatty acids in their blood. This discovery by University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Cancer Center<\/a> researchers may allow physicians to warn patients years before the onset of diabetes, therefore allowing them to change their lifestyle patterns and potentially avoiding the diagnosis of a chronic disease.<\/p>\n

“Currently there are no clinical tests that predict the likelihood of developing diabetes, only exams that can tell, for example, if someone that is pre-diabetic has relatively high blood sugar or insulin levels,” said Wei Jia<\/strong>, the director of the UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center’s metabolomics shared resources program. “To know if you are likely to get diabetes in a few years is an important discovery. People can hopefully get tested for the disease during physical exams in the future.”<\/p>\n

The unsaturated fatty acid markers recently identified in a study published online in the journal EBioMedicine<\/me><\/a> can mark if someone is pre-diabetic long before conventional ways of measuring the disease. The levels of these fatty acids can change up to 10 years before the individuals are diagnosed with diabetes.<\/p>\n

Markers may predict pre-diabetes risk<\/h2>\n

The markers, through a blood sample test, may help predict the risk of developing pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which is a group of conditions including elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance and high glucose level.<\/p>\n

Explained Jia, “It is conventionally assumed that if people are obese they are in risk of being pre-diabetic. However, sometimes people who are obese can still be healthy. If people know they are specifically pre-diabetic, they can have a more targeted way of treating it.”<\/p>\n

Obesity is associated with the risk of developing type-2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, it has been increasingly recognized that obesity is not a homogeneous condition and about 25 to 40 percent of obese individuals can actually maintain healthy status with no apparent signs of health complications.<\/p>\n

Jia and his research team conducted a metabolomics study on four independent cohorts that involved a total of 452 participants, in collaboration with scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University<\/a> affiliated Shanghai 6th People’s Hospital.<\/p>\n

The team performed a cross-sectional study with metabolically healthy and unhealthy obese subjects, a longitudinal study to observe the occurrence of developing pre-diabetes over as long as ten years, and two studies to evaluate the therapeutic effects on subjects who underwent metabolic surgery or received very low carbohydrate diet for eight weeks.<\/p>\n

The researchers aim to continue developing the blood test technology, and eventually have it available for physicians.<\/p>\n

—By Nana Ohkawa<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Hawaii Cancer Center discovery may allow physicians to warn patients years before the onset of diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[959,165,169,9],"class_list":["post-39958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-diabetes","tag-health","tag-uh-cancer-center","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t