Low potassium level as a diabetes harbinger

Type 2 diabetes - potassium as early marker

05/12/2012

A team of researchers found that low levels of blood potassium in hypertensive patients occur when they have type 2 diabetes or a precursor, but not in healthy people.

The researchers came to this conclusion around Dr. med. Christine Meisinger from Helmholtz Zentrum München with partners from the German Center for Diabetes Research in Düsseldorf. The results of her study are based on data from the KORA F4 study, which has been examining the health of thousands of citizens from the Augsburg area for more than 20 years.

Low levels of blood potassium in high blood pressure patients are more common, especially if they also have type 2 diabetes or a precursor to the common disease. This association exists regardless of whether hypertension is treated with diuretics.

For the first time, the study also found an association between serum potassium levels and prediabetes. „Modifiable risk factors can help us define risk groups for diabetes“, Meisinger explains. (Source: Meisinger C et al .: Serum potassium is associated with prediabetes and newly diagnosed diabetes in hypertensive adults from the general population: The KORA F4 study, Diabetologia online)

Image: Michael Horn