Millions of people around the globe have diabetes. And there are even more people in the pre-diabetes stage which means that they will eventually develop diabetes at some point in their lives. There are two types of diabetes that we know of- type 1 and type 2 but researchers from the Global Diabetes Institute and Einstein Global Diabetes Institute have discovered a third type of diabetes which millions of people are dealing with at the moment.
Type-1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that a person develops in early life. Type-2 diabetes on the other hand, is a lifestyle condition caused due to obesity, high sugar diet and physical inactivity. Now, scientists have identified a new category of diabetes namely ‘Malnutrition-Related Diabetes’. According to a study published in the journal ‘Diabetes Care’, malnutrition can trigger diabetes which they have referred to as MRD. This diabetes condition is prevalent in Asian and African countries where malnutrition is evident.
Over a span of 12 years, the research team worked relentlessly to find defects and risks of malnutrition related diabetes. As quoted by Dr. Meredith Hawkins, Director of Einstein Global Diabetes Institute in the research, “Current scientific literature offers no guidance on managing malnutrition-related diabetes, which is rare in high-income nations but exists in more than 60 low- and middle-income countries. The doctors in those countries read Western medical journals, so they don’t learn about malnutrition-related diabetes and don’t suspect it in their patients. We hope our findings will increase awareness of this disease, which is so devastating to so many people and will pave the way for effective treatment strategies.”
This shows that medical experts from Asian and African countries are unaware of this diabetes type which is why many people develop it over time. Malnutritioned people are found to have a defect in the insulin secretion from the pancreas which puts them at risk of diabetes. Thus, MRD is different from type 1 and type 2 diabetes in terms of insulin resistance. Another research published in the journal of nutrition suggests that young adults who were exposed to food insecurity are highly likely to get malnutrition diabetes.
As far as treatment of MRD is concerned, researchers explained that drugs used for type-2 diabetes management can be effectively used for MRD too. Drugs that boost insulin secretion are apt for MRD.
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