Can Oily Fish Really Cause Diabetes? - UK News Headlines
ating oily fish that has been exposed to high levels of environmental pollutants can cause diabetes - particularly if you are overweight, a study shows.
Scientists say chemicals known as POPS (persistent organic pollutants) stored in body fat - not obesity itself - could be contributing to the rising number of cases of Type 2 diabetes which affects more than 1.9 million Brits.
If true it could turn the conventional wisdom of how obesity causes diabetes on its head, reports New Scientist.
POPs are toxic and include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticide DDT. They have been banned in developed countries but can accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals.
They are most likely to end up in people by the consumption of fatty fish such as salmon.
Last year Dr Duk-Hee Lee at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea, and her colleagues reported people
with higher levels of six different POPs were more likely to have diabetes than people with low levels.
Now a follow-up study published in Diabetes Care suggests an association in non-diabetic people between certain pesticides, PCBs and insulin resistance – a precursor to diabetes.
Fat people with POPs in their blood were more likely to develop insulin resistance than thin people with POPs - but the expected association between obesity and insulin resistance disappeared in people with no POPs.
"This suggests the possibility POPs stored in fat tissue, not obesity itself, may be a key factor for the development of type 2 diabetes," said Dr Lee.
ating oily fish that has been exposed to high levels of environmental pollutants can cause diabetes - particularly if you are overweight, a study shows.
Scientists say chemicals known as POPS (persistent organic pollutants) stored in body fat - not obesity itself - could be contributing to the rising number of cases of Type 2 diabetes which affects more than 1.9 million Brits.
If true it could turn the conventional wisdom of how obesity causes diabetes on its head, reports New Scientist.
POPs are toxic and include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticide DDT. They have been banned in developed countries but can accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals.
They are most likely to end up in people by the consumption of fatty fish such as salmon.
Last year Dr Duk-Hee Lee at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea, and her colleagues reported people
with higher levels of six different POPs were more likely to have diabetes than people with low levels.
Now a follow-up study published in Diabetes Care suggests an association in non-diabetic people between certain pesticides, PCBs and insulin resistance – a precursor to diabetes.
Fat people with POPs in their blood were more likely to develop insulin resistance than thin people with POPs - but the expected association between obesity and insulin resistance disappeared in people with no POPs.
"This suggests the possibility POPs stored in fat tissue, not obesity itself, may be a key factor for the development of type 2 diabetes," said Dr Lee.
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