Share:
Muscle wasting in type 1 diabetes remains fatally neglected
According to researchers, muscle wasting is a neglected problem among diabetics. Maintaining and building muscle could significantly improve the sufferer's situation.
More and more diabetes patients
According to the latest findings, the number of diabetic patients is increasing massively. Many do not know about their illness for a long time. The main risk factors for type 2 diabetes are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and overweight or obesity. However, these factors do not play a role in type 1 diabetes. According to Canadian scientists, the situation of these patients could also be improved by maintaining and building up muscles.
According to scientists, more attention should be paid to muscle atrophy in diabetics. Maintaining and building muscle could significantly improve the patient's situation. (Picture: Picture-Factory / fotolia.com) Maintaining and building muscle can help diabetics
According to McMaster University researchers in Canada, muscle wasting is a neglected problem among diabetics. The experts recently published two studies on diabetes in the journals "Diabetes Reports" and "Scientific Reports".
On the internet physicians platform "esanum" it is said that the current treatment of type 1 diabetics in addition to dietary measures mainly focused on a substitution of the missing insulin. According to the arguments of the Canadian researchers, however, the metabolism of these people could be substantially improved by the preservation and development of musculature - in addition to the administration of insulin.
Lack of insulin has serious consequences
Type 1 diabetes is an immune-related disease in which the insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells (pancreas) are destroyed by the body's immune system.
As explained on the online platform, the resulting lack of insulin has serious effects on the entire metabolic system. Among other things, the hormone provides the uptake of glucose into the muscles, which represents the largest amount of storage for the energy carrier and thus lowers the glucose level in the blood.
Long term increased glucose levels
Already in the early course of the disease, there is a loss of muscular stem cells and, as a consequence, a decrease in muscle tissue. This has significant consequences for glucose metabolism. According to the data, those affected not only suffer from a lack of insulin, but also a decline of the storage tissue and thus a reduced uptake capacity for glucose by the target tissues of the insulin.
The result: long-term increased glucose levels, which represent a significant risk factor for a whole range of secondary diseases such as kidney or vascular system.
Pharmaceutical companies are working on better tolerated alternatives
In both animal and human studies, the Canadian research team has shown that measures to prevent the onset of muscle tissue can improve insulin action and help reduce blood glucose levels in the long run.
The scientists used in their studies, inter alia, agents that inhibit a muscle-own hormone called myostatin, which in turn suppresses muscle growth. According to the study authors, several pharmaceutical companies are currently working to develop more compatible alternatives to existing ones.
Strengthen your muscles naturally
Study author Thomas Hawke of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine said, "While my advice would be to do sports, our work provides potential therapeutic options for those who are unable or unwilling to do so Are able to train so intensively that they show therapeutic benefits. "
The authors call for the role of the muscles in the regulation of glucose metabolism not to be neglected and in the treatment of type 1 diabetes more than before to rely on multi-dimensional treatment strategies. (Ad)