Recent research published in ‘Diabetologia’ and presented at ADA annual meeting 2022 reveals that excessively high body mass is associated with the development of type I diabetes and not only type 2 diabetes usually linked with excess body weight.

In this nationwide study, all Israeli adolescents, ages 16–19 years, undergoing medical evaluation in preparation for mandatory military conscription between January 1996 and December 2016, were included for analysis unless they had a history of abnormal blood sugar. A total of 1.46 million adolescents were included. Data were linked with information about adult onset of type 1 diabetes in the Israeli National Diabetes Registry. Weight and height were measured at study entry, and statistical modelling used to calculate any excess risk of type 1 diabetes associated with overweight or obesity.

There were 777 new cases of type 1 diabetes during 15,819,750 person-years of follow-up (mean age at diagnosis 25 years). BMI was found to be associated with incident type 1 diabetes. In a model adjusted for age, sex and socio-demographic variables, the increased risk of type 1 diabetes increased as BMI increased. According to the researchers there is growing evidence of a link between obesity and various autoimmune conditions. A possible explanation the researchers provide is that the elevated levels of inflammatory adipokines and cytokines associated with obesity diminish self-tolerance by promoting proinflammatory processes that lead to diabetes.