Infection with a common virus may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes in older adults, a new study from the Netherlands suggests.
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In the study, adults ages 85 and over who were infected with cytomegalovirus were about twice as likely to have Type 2 diabetes compared with those not infected.?
Cytomegalovirus is a type of herpes virus found in 50 to 80 percent of adults over age 40; most people experience no symptoms of the infection.
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The findings suggest that cytomegalovirus infection plays a role in the development of Type 2 diabetes in the elderly, the researchers said. However, the study found an association, not a cause-effect link.?
While the findings are interesting, researchers need studies that follow people forward in time to find out whether the virus could cause Type 2 diabetes, said Dr. Rifka Schulman, an endocrinologist at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
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In addition, because the study was conducted in elderly people, the findings may not apply to other populations, Schulman said.
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For now, well-established risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure and lack of exercise should be considered the primary causes of Type 2 diabetes, she said.?
Linking diabetes and infection
Previous studies have linked cytomegalovirus and Type 1 diabetes, but studies looking at the virus and Type 2 diabetes have had inconsistent results. One previous study looked at a generally younger group of adults than the new study ? between ages 45 and 84 ? and found no link between cytomegalovirus infection and Type 2 diabetes.
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In the new study, the researcher analyzed information from 549 elderly adults in the Netherlands.
About 80 percent were infected with cytomegalovirus, and 15 percent had Type 2 diabetes.
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About 17 percent of those infected with cytomegalovirus had Type 2 diabetes, whereas 7.9 percent of those without the virus had diabetes.
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The findings held even after the researchers took into account factors that could affect the results, including participants' gender, income, education, smoking status and number of medications.
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Behind the link
The researchers speculated that cytomegalovirus may predispose people to diabetes by harming cells of the pancreas. The pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that is critical for getting sugar (glucose) into cells. Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes desensitized to insulin, and the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to compensate.?
It's also possible that Type 2 diabetes impairs the immune system, and as a result, makes individuals vulnerable to cytomegalovirus infection. However, this explanation is not as likely, because people are often infected with cytomegalovirus in childhood, the researchers said.
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It may be that cytomegalovirus infection increases diabetes risk only after years of infection, which could explain why earlier studies in younger adults did not find a link, the researchers said.
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The study was published today (Aug. 27) in the journal Immunity and Ageing.
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This story was originally written for InnovationNewsDaily and is reprinted with permission here.?Copyright 2012?MyHealthNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company.Source: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/common-virus-may-lead-to-type-2-diabetes
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