Older men with lean body mass more prone to develop diabetes over time

WASHINGTON--Older adults have the greatest burden of diabetes; however, the contribution of age-related muscle loss to its development remains unclear.

Researchers have found in a new study that Older men who have lower lean body mass as they age are more prone to developing diabetes, while similar findings were not found in older women. The study has been published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

The researchers conducted a study to assess the relationship of lean body mass with aging to incident diabetes in community-dwelling adults.

The researchers studied 871 men and 984 women, with an average age of 60 years at the initial visit, from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, who were followed up to 15 years. They used Dual X-ray Absorptiometry and found that lower lean body mass with aging is associated with incident diabetes in men but not women.

One in four adults aged 65 and older has diabetes, making them the group with the greatest burden of diabetes. Skeletal muscle is the largest insulin-sensitive tissue in the body and plays an essential role in blood sugar regulation. Age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia, may contribute to the development of diabetes in older adults.

"Age-related muscle loss may be an under-recognized target for interventions to prevent the development of diabetes in older adults," said the study's first author, Rita R. Kalyani, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. "We found that relatively lower lean body mass with aging was related to a higher incidence of diabetes in men but not women, and partially related to body size."

The study concluded that relatively lower lean body mass with aging is associated with incident diabetes in men, and partially related to anthropometrics, but not women.

"Future studies that use more direct methods to assess skeletal muscle mass may give further insights into these relationships and the sex differences that we observed," Kalyani said.

For more details click on the link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvaa043