Dallas Chiropractor Best Practices
Research Commentary;
Stress and Diabetes
A review of
Harris ML, Oldmeadow C, Hure A, Luu J, Loxton D, et al. (2017) Stress increases the risk of type 2 diabetes onset in women: A 12-year longitudinal study using causal modelling. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0172126.
By Dr. Bryan Stephens
Summarized Review Conclusions
While many risk factors have been identified with type 2 diabetes, they only account for about 60% of the risk. This paper set out to look at stress as one of the additional factors that is not as well studied. As you may have heard/read in either our 12- minutes to health talks or some of our other research commentaries, stress in a major contributor toward inflammation. This study focused on the effect of stress and it’s inflammation on risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They found that perceived stress is a strong risk factor for diabetes as there was greater than 2-fold increase with moderate/severe stress.
“Moderate/high stress levels were associated with a 2.3-fold increase in the odds of diabetes three years later.”
Harris ML, Oldmeadow C, Hure A, Luu J, Loxton D, et al. (2017) Stress increases the risk of type 2 diabetes onset in women: A 12-year longitudinal study using causal modelling. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0172126.
“Diabetes is projected to affect 552 million people by 2030, almost tripling in prevalence since 2011.”
Harris ML, Oldmeadow C, Hure A, Luu J, Loxton D, et al. (2017) Stress increases the risk of type 2 diabetes onset in women: A 12-year longitudinal study using causal modelling. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0172126.
“Targeting improved mental health and reducing stress could also have the potential of slowing the progression from glucose intolerance to frank diabetes, or lead to better glycaemic control.”
Harris ML, Oldmeadow C, Hure A, Luu J, Loxton D, et al. (2017) Stress increases the risk of type 2 diabetes onset in women: A 12-year longitudinal study using causal modelling. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0172126.
Introduction to the Research
Due to diabetes having a significant association with morbidity and mortality along with rising healthcare costs, and with diabetes set to overtake cardiovascular disease as the number one chronic lifestyle disease, the authors evaluated other possible risk factors to help diminish the onset of future diabetes diagnoses. The traditional risk factors of hypertension, body mass index (BMI), physical activity levels, smoking, and diet quality only contribute to about 60% of the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Research Methodology
This is a longitudinal cohort study, meaning they followed a group of people over a set amount of time. In this case, it followed a group of 477 women over a time span of 12 years. Surveys were given every 3 years to determine the levels of perceived stress and the diagnosis or treatment of diabetes.
Research Finding
Lots of calculations were done with a lot of statistical equations performed that you are more than happy to go into detail with the article. I will summarize it here. Even with traditional risk factors such as BMI, physical activity, smoking, hypertension, and diet quality being considered, stress was found to be a strong risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Research References
As always with these reviews, these are my takeaways from the article and I encourage you to read the article in its entirety. The references used in this article by the authors of this article are listed here.
Our Message
Our Chiropractors in Dallas, located near the corner of Mockingbird Ln. and Abrams Rd., are here to help educate our patients on how to live a healthier lifestyle by teaching our patients the link between how you eat and how your choices can effect your health. We are committed to getting rid of back pain, neck pain and headaches with chiropractic adjustments and exercise.