Iron excess linked to Diabetes in Women

Women who store too much iron in their body may be at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

Women who store too much iron in their body may be at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, new research suggests. Although type 2 diabetes is often seen in patients with hemochromatosis, an iron storage disorder, it has been unclear if higher iron stores are linked to diabetes in a healthy population, lead author Dr. Rui Jiang, from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues note. To investigate, Jiang’s team analyzed data from 1414 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study and provided blood samples at enrollment for iron analysis. The study group included 698 women who developed diabetes during 10 years of follow-up and 716 similar subjects who remained diabetes-free. The researchers’ findings are published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. As body levels of iron rose, so did the risk of diabetes, the authors found. Subjects with the highest levels of iron were nearly three times more likely to have diabetes than those with the lowest levels. Moreover, iron levels remained a predictor of diabetes even after adjusting for a variety of diabetes risk factors, such as family history and total calorie intake. Testing for excess iron “may help to identify a high-risk population who may benefit from further evaluation and interventions (lifestyle or therapeutic),” the investigators conclude. (Source: Reuters Health, Journal of the American Medical Association, Feb, 2004. )