Insulin inaction may hurt even nondiabetics
By Janet Raloff
People with adult-onset diabetes face triple the coronary heart disease risk typical of the general population. A new study suggests that the problem may trace to an impaired response to insulin, a condition also known as insulin resistance. This could explain why controlling elevated concentrations of sugar in the blood—a problem that occurs downstream of this impairment—doesn’t eliminate that increased heart disease risk.
It also suggests that people without diabetes but who have insulin resistance (SN: 4/8/2000, p. 236: The New GI Tracts)—up to one-third of U.S. adults—may face a similar risk.