Malnutrition causes a distinct form of diabetes, confirms a new study. “Millions of people around the world suffer from this particular form of the disease”

Malnutrition favors a form of diabetes distinct from those already classified, have concluded several world experts in this pathology in an article published on Thursday, stressing that poor countries are the most affected, AFP and Agerpres write.

“We call on the international community in the field of diabetes to recognize this particular form of the disease,” said the authors of the article published in Lancet Global Health magazine, which presented the consensus to which it reached the International Diabetes Federation.

The two main forms of diabetes are type 1, which appear in young people, and type 2, diagnosed in older people. The first form, which manifests itself acutely, is caused by an insulin deficiency; In the second form, more common, this hormone is normally produced, but the body is less sensitive to it.

However, health experts have found that a widespread form of diabetes does not fall into these categories. The distinct typology occurs in young patients, often under 30, but is less acute than type 1 diabetes, and insulin production is only slightly lower.

And, unlike type 2 diabetes, excess weight does not seem to be a risk factor. On the contrary, patients are generally malnourished or undernourished, with a lower weight than normal.

“It is estimated that 25 million people around the world suffer from this type of diabetes,” especially in poor or developing countries, the study authors reported.

The best treatment method is not yet known in the case of this type of diabetes

This concept is not new: in the 1980s and 1990s, the World Health Organization (WHO) included in its classifications “a diabetes associated with malnutrition.” However, WHO gave up this classification in 1999, due to the lack of consensus between experts on the fact that malnutrition is a sufficient factor to cause diabetes alone.

However, since then, numerous studies – in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Uganda, Pakistan, Rwanda – have confirmed the distinct existence of such a mechanism, according to authors.

The physiological processes that cause this type of diabetes and the best method of treating it are not yet known: weight loss is not logically indicated, and the effect of traditional methormin or insulin treatments remains uncertain.

Above all, combating this type of diabetes involves largely maintaining and accelerating poverty and hunger fighting programs, especially by “increasing access to simple, cheap, nourishing and high protein foods,” the study authors concluded.