Eating eggs, breastfeeding affect risk of diabetes mellitus (type 2)

Breastfeeding may help cut the risk of diabetes mellitus (type 2)
 
A recent study led by Eleanor Bomla Schwarz at the University of Pittsburgh suggests that breastfeeding may help reduce risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in later life.
 
The study, published in the Sept 2010 issue of the American Journal of Medicine shows that women who did not breastfeed their children were almost twice as likely as those who did to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
 
The association was based on data from 2,233 women aged 40 to 78.  About 56 percent of women reported they had breastfed their children for at least one month.  About 27 percent who did not breastfeed seemed at higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
 
The study was not a trial, meaning that the association is not necessarily causal.  But the researchers suggest that the possibility of causality may real because breastfeeding can help cut belly fat, which is linked with elevated type 2 diabetes mellitus risk.
 
Many factors may affect the risk of diabetes mellitus (type 2).
 
Eating too many eggs, too often, may increase risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, according to a study released in 2009 in the journal Diabetes Care.
 
The study, led by Djoussé L at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School shows that the more eggs men and women consumed, the higher risk of type 2 diabetes they faced.
 
For the study, the researchers examined data from two completed randomized trials: 20,703 men from the Physicians' Health Study I that was conducted between 1982 and 2007 and 36,295 women from the Women's Health Study conducted between 1992 and 2007, to see if there was any association between egg consumption and type 2 diabetes risk.
 
During the 20-year follow-up in men and the 11.7 year follow-up in women, 1,921 men and 2,112 women were identified as patients with type 2 diabetes.
 
Among men, those who ate less than 1, 1, 2 to 4, 5 to 6 and more than or equal to 7 eggs per week were at a 9, 9, 18, 46, and 58 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes respectively, compared with those who did not eat any eggs.
 
Among women, the increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes was 6, -3, 19, 18 and 77 percent respectively in those who consumed corresponding numbers of eggs each week, compared with those who did not use eggs.
 
However, Djoussé L and other colleagues conducted another smaller study which involved
only 3898 men and women who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study between 1989 and 2007; they found no significant association between egg consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes.
 
In addition, the researchers found that dietary cholesterol was not linked with the incidence of diabetes and egg consumption did not seem to cause any clinically meaningful differences in fasting glucose, fasting insulin or measures of insulin resistance, even though the differences were analytically significant.
 
The authors noted that the subjects in the second, smaller study consumed limited numbers of eggs each week, that is, equal to or less than 4 eggs per week, a fact that may affect the accuracy of the results.
 
The results suggest that eating a limited number of eggs per week may not increase risk of type 2 diabetes. Again, the study was relatively small and the results may not be applicable to a large population.
 
The study was published in the Aug, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
 
Type 2 diabetes mellitus affects some 20 million Americans. The disease has been recently associated with an elevated risk of Alzheimer's disease. Physical activity and following a healthy diet may help cut the risk.

By David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton