Saturday, June 07, 2008
Weight Gain May Be Beneficial in Type 1 Diabetes
The authors of this study presented at the ADA Scientific Sessions found that some weight gain in type 1 diabetes reduced mortality. I would like to check out this study to see if those who gained some weight had a better A1c, since keeping blood sugars lower increases episodes of hypoglycemia, and those little Junior Juices sure do add up. Here's an excerpt from the ScienceDaily.com report: "Gaining body fat may be a good thing, at least for people with type 1 diabetes, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Their study, being presented at the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco, followed 655 patients with type 1 diabetes for 20 years and found that patients who gained weight over time were less likely to die." I still want to get my weight down for personal competitive reasons (i.e., I can run and cycle faster at a lower weight), but perhaps I should not be overly concerned about it for health reasons. I guess it probably depends on what is causing the weight gain. Does anyone have the skinny on this study? :)
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2 comments:
First let me say I haven't read the study (I'm quite happy to take that one at face value and ignore the stats, because I have extra chub and I'd like it to be good for me LOL).
I'm just wondering if they've considered the obvious - that T1s who are gaining weight or carrying a little extra often have much better control - simply because those with bad control lose weight easily with the high blood sugars.
Either way, you've made my day with that post - I shall now wear my spare tyre with pride ;) (shh don't anyone tell me any different!)
I agree that it seems likely that weight gain, per se, would not result in benefits but having better control would probably be the underlying cause. Or maybe it's just taking more insulin? I wonder if they controlled for A1c in this study. I have looked into this a bit more and it appears that this is not a new line of research. What I want to know is, what about people with great A1c's who are fit and not overweight compared to average normal and overweight type 1 diabetics. I don't think I will change my weight goals but I won't beat myself up for treating those lows that come along with better BG's. As a side-note, the Dexcom does help to prevent lows.
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