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According to a number of studies, fetal nutrition may have an effect on the development of diabetes later in life.
A study of Pima Indians in the southwest United States showed an increased risk of non-insulin dependent diabetes in adults who were low birth-weight babies.
Another study of Mexican Americans showed a relationship between low birth weight and the "insulin resistance syndrome" associated with diabetes and other diseases.
Diabetes researcher Dr. C. N. Hales of Cambridge University suggests that in the womb, a nutritional environment lacking adequate protein may affect the development and "programming" of insulin producing cells, which could predispose a person to diabetes later in life.
"That's a theory that has merit, but it may not be the cause in all populations," says Dr.. W.Y. Fujkimoto, University of Washington in Seattle. He is studying non-insulin dependent diabetes in Japanese Americans and is examining genetic markets for the disease.
Diabetes mellitus is a disease in which the body is unable to properly process sugar. Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, the most common type found in adults, usually results from the body's resistance to and deficiency in insulin, a hormone that helps convert sugar into energy.
More than seven million people have diabetes in North America; another five million may unknowingly have the disease.
In the U.S., Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Native Americans have
rates of diabetes that are more than twice that of the white population. Much research
has focused on the Pima Indians of Arizona, who have the highest rate of non-insulin dependent diabetes in the world (more than 45 per cent of them have diabetes.)
The cause of diabetes are believed to be genetic, but to date no genes have been identified. The disease runs in families, but recent research suggests that this may not be the result of genetics alone.
(Lynne Taylor is a Public Affairs Specialist of Memorial Sloan Ketting Cancer Centre).
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