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# Are you at risk of type 2 diabetes?  Look at your waistline
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/type_2_diabetes_0718120825/
- Published: 2012-07-17T21:44:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:20:45.000Z
- Description: Fujimoto and colleagues report in the Journal of Diabetes Investigation that migrant Japanese populations show higher type 2 diabetes prevalence than Japanese in Japan, and propose that visceral fat gain drives insulin resistance. Diet and exercise may delay the disease.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Lifestyle, Health News, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PHD

Tuesday July 18, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Japan has lower incidence of type 2 idabetes mellitus, compared to the U.S. prompting some people to speculate that the Japanese lifestyle may make a difference. But still some people argue that it is the genetics that makes the difference.

W. Y. Fukimoto of University of Washington in Seattle Washington and colleagues reported on June 1, 2012 in Journal of Diabetes Investigation that it's the lifestyle that at least largely determines the risk of an individual s type 2 diabetes.

Fujimoto et al pointed out migrant Japanese populations both in the United States and Brazil have for a long time shown a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes than the Japanese population in Japan.

The Seattle Japanese American Community Diabetes Study which aimed to shed some light on the etiology and pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes in Japanese Americans assessed insulin sensitivity, insulin response and adiposity.

The researchers reported that visceral adiposity is a risk factor for abnormal glucose tolerance, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and the metabolic syndrome.

Based on what were found, they further proposed "a lifestyle that fosters increased weight gain, especially in the visceral adipose depot, promotes the development of insulin resistance which in turn exposes an underlying reduced beta-cell reserve in susceptible individuals, resulting in glucose intolerance and eventually in many the development of diabetes."

The researchers suggested that dietary and exercise interventions in individuals who were diagnosed as having impaired glucose tolerance possibly help delay or prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.

An estimated 24 million Americans live with diabetes, which doctors say has no cure. The condition can be controlled by using diabetes drugs for the rest of a patient's lifetime.