SYDNEY, July 16 (Xinhua) -- An Australian-led study has found muscle health likely plays a major role in diabetes risk, alongside body weight and obesity.
The team, led by Australia's Curtin University, found people with both excess body fat and poor muscle health, known as sarcopenic obesity, were more than 3.5 times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people with healthy body composition, according to a recent university statement.
The study, published in Diabetes Care, analyzed health data from nearly 480,000 adults over 14 years, all free of diabetes at the beginning, and found people with sarcopenic obesity had a 19-percent higher risk to develop type 2 diabetes than those with obesity alone, and a 91-percent higher risk than those with sarcopenia alone.
Within 10 years, nearly 15 percent of people with sarcopenic obesity developed diabetes, compared with around 11 percent of those with obesity alone and 3 percent of those without sarcopenia or obesity, according to the study.
"Most people know carrying excess weight can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, but our findings show muscle health is also an important piece of the puzzle," said the study's lead author Guan Zhongyang, PhD candidate at the Curtin School of Population Health.
The findings challenge the common perception that diabetes risk is primarily driven by body weight, highlighting muscle health as a key factor, Guan said, adding the link was strongest in women and adults under 60.
Researchers said preserving muscle health through regular physical activity may help control blood sugar levels and reduce the body's resistance to insulin, an important element of type 2 diabetes. ■
