Uncontrolled Type 2 Diabetes and the Cancer Connection!

Keeping type 2 diabetes under control, especially with the use of the oral hypoglycemic medication or diabetic pill, metformin, might be helpful in preventing cancer of the liver, according to an article published this month in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. Workers at the Department of Medicine, Pordenone Hospital in Pordenone, Italy, looked at:

• 465 volunteers with liver cancer
• 618 patients with cirrhosis of the liver and
• 490 controls without liver disease

Research results revealed:

Among the volunteers with liver cancer... 31.2% had Type 2 diabetes, 23.2% with liver cirrhosis had Type 2 diabetes, and only 12.6% of the control group had Type 2 diabetes. As well, the hemoglobin A1c or HbA1c levels were significantly higher in diabetics with liver cancer than in diabetics with liver cirrhosis or with healthy livers.

Measuring the HbA1c level gives an idea of how blood sugar control has been over the past 90 days. For each 1% increase in the HbA1c level, there was a 26 to 50% increase in the risk for liver cancer. Type 2 diabetics taking metformin had a significantly lower risk of liver cancer than those treated with sulfonylureas and insulin.

The hemoglobin A1c is objective and gives a precise reading of your average blood sugar levels over the past few months. This test shows how successful you have been in your overall efforts to control your blood sugar. Normal HbA1c levels are 6% or lower. For Type 2 diabetics the target number is usually 7% or under.

Type 2 diabetes are also known to have a higher risk of cancers of the:

• pancreas
• uterus
• colon and rectum
• breast and
• bladder

About 80% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer have glucose intolerance or actual diabetes. The risk for uterine cancer could be as much as four times higher in diabetic as in non-diabetic women. Various studies have indicated that cancer patients could have a 20 to 40 or even up to a 60% higher risk of colon cancer than non-diabetics. Both Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance were linked with breast cancer in the Nurses Health Study performed at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, USA. Diabetics have about a 24 per cent higher risk of bladder cancer than non-diabetics.

It is not known yet what causes this increased risk. People with Type 2 diabetes often have other risk factors for cancer, such as:

• advanced age
• obesity
• poor diet and
• sedentary lifestyle

Overly high insulin levels and inflammation are also risk factors for these increased cancer rates.

Alice Bender, Registered Dietitian at the American Institute for Cancer Research, recommends eating a healthful, varied, mainly plant-based diet, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight to avoid both cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

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Beverleigh Piepers RN... the Diabetes Detective.
http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog
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