Exposure to arsenic and other toxic metals may accelerate the progression toward diabetes, according to a new study by University of Illinois Chicago researchers. In a longitudinal study of more than 500 Mexican Americans living in southern Texas, researchers found that high levels of toxic metals in urine predicted faster increases in blood sugar over subsequent years. Based on these results, individuals with the highest levels of arsenic in their urine were projected to qualify as prediabetic 23 months earlier and diabetic 65 months earlier than those with the lowest exposure to the toxic metal.
The study, published in Diabetes Care , highlights an underappreciated risk factor for diabetes , a disease of immense public health significance that is associated with significant health disparities in conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney failure and blindness. It also emphasizes that this risk factor can be addressed by reducing exposure to contaminated food, water and other products. "Environmental exposures have largely been neglected as drivers of the diabetes epidemic," said Margaret Weiss, an MD/Ph.
D. student at UIC and first author of the study. "These data support using environmental policy as a new tool to mitigate the devastating burden of diabetes on individuals and society at large.
" The study examined residents of Starr County, Texas, a region along the U.S.-Mexico border with one of the highest rates of diabetes and diabetes-related mortality in the coun.