Obesity the greatest diabetes risk

A new report in leading diabetes journal Diabetes Care, indicates that obesity and physical inactivity are both major risk factors in the development of type 2 diabetes amongst women, but obesity is the key factor.
According to a study by Harvard experts at the School of Public Health in Bosto, the relative contributions of the two risk factors seem uncertain. To make the situation clearer, the teams studied almost 70,000 women who were part of the Nurse’s Health Study .
The team of experts found that, after adjusting for age, smoking and other factors, an increased Body Mass Index lead to increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, the risk increased with waist circumference and fell with levels of physical activity.
The team of researchers reportedly concluded that: “the magnitude of risk contributed by obesity is much greater than that imparted by lack of physical activity,” and therefore “weight loss and maintenance of healthy weight should be emphasized as an eventual goal to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.”