Type I and Type II diabetes are two different conditions, but with young Asian Americans, the conditions are often hard to distinguish compared to other ethnic groups. For example, white type II diabetes patients are usually older and overweight while Asian Americans with type 2 diabetes are often young and normal weight. White type I diabetes patients usually have autoimmune responses against pancreas beta cells while type I Asian American diabetics have that response less than 50% of the time. As a result, many Asian Americans are misdiagnosed. Dr William Hsu, M.D., of the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, says “Diabetes in Asian Americans is somewhat of a mystery.”
Fortunately, Hsu and his colleagues have made found ways to better distinguish between the two diabetes types in Asian Americans. In a pilot study of 30 healthy weight diabetic and non-diabetic Asian Americans, they found Asian Americans with type 2 diabetes are more resistant to insulin that those with type 1 diabetes or no diabetes. While most type 2 diabetics are generally told to lose weight, although Asian American with Type 2 often have a normal BMI, researchers found that they have more bad fats internally compared to those with type 1 or no diabetes. This hints that normal weight doesn’t imply fitness.
A key message here for Asian Americans is to exercise and get fit no matter what weight people are. The study was done as part of Joslin Diabetes Center’s Asian American Diabetes Initiative, which provides a number of online tools specific designed toward helping Asian Americans deal with diabetes, and the Dianne Nunnally Hoppes Laboratory for Diabetes Complications.
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