PC-1 Gene and Type 2 Diabetes
In a recent study of 6,000 people in France, scientists found that people with a highly active PC-1 gene tend to make too much insulin that performs less than optimally; high insulin levels are associated wtih pancreatic dysfunction, overtaxed kidneys, high blood pressure and cholesterol. Of the 50 million Americans who are insulin-resistant, Dr. Ira Goldfine, one of the study’s authors and a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, estimates that up to one-third of them may carry the version of PC-1 gene that predisposes them to diabetes. (San Jose Mercury News, August 9, 2005)
Finding another piece of the genetic puzzle of type 2 diabetes will make it easier to understand why some people develop diabetes and others do not. But it’s clear that some people are more susceptible to diabetes because of their lifestyle. Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes is typically associated with overweight couch potatoes (at least that’s the case in the U.S.).
Even if genetic testing becomes routine, this piece of advice from Dr. Gerald Reaven, a professor of medicine at Stanford University still stands:
You can overcome it by trying to stay skinny and fit.
I wish it were as easy to stay “skinny and fit,” as it is to say it.
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POSTED IN: Genetics of Disease
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