This Might Make Women Develop Diabetes

Diabetes, it’s a disease that everyone reading this is familiar with, and it’s a disease that many people end up developing and dealing with for the rest of their lives.

Like most doctors, I don’t enjoy seeing people develop diabetes.

Caveat - when I speak of developing diabetes I’m speaking of type 2 diabetes or as many people call it “late-onset diabetes” and not type 1 diabetes which is typically a condition diagnosed in early childhood.

And while I don’t enjoy seeing people develop diabetes I’m always happy to report that in many cases a person can reverse their diabetes.

Often with little more than a change in diet and lifestyle (among other changes that I recommend in the privacy of my office).

A study I just came across reinforces the claim I’ve been making for years.

Lifestyle is directly involved with type 2 diabetes development.

Interestingly enough, in this case, the dangers are for women only.

A recent study made a link between women working more than 45 hours a week and an increased likelihood of developing diabetes.

The study, which was published in the BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care, analyzed the health data of 7,000 Canadians ages 35-74.

And while the study dealt with men and women, it was the women who were most obviously affected by this phenomenon.

Freedom Health News writes:

“The research delved specifically into the hours worked as the main area of research which is why they controlled for factors such as marital status, parenthood, ethnicity, place of birth, place of residence, long-term health conditions, lifestyle, weight, and body mass index.

The researchers weren’t sure why these women were more likely to develop diabetes. But they noticed that men were not affected by long work hours. In fact, the more a man worked the less his chances of developing diabetes.

The authors write, ‘Considering the rapid and substantial increase of diabetes prevalence in Canada and worldwide, identifying modifiable risk factors such as long work hours is of major importance to improve prevention and orient policy making, as it could prevent numerous cases of diabetes and diabetes-related chronic diseases.’

The likely causes for this are that women who work longer hours experience dysregulation in hormone levels that cause them to gain weight. Weight gain is a known factor in diabetes risk as it often leads to insulin resistance a major factor leading to the development of diabetes.”

So what does that mean for you if you’re a woman?

Should you work less?

I’ll refrain from making judgement calls on how you should live your life.

However, if you work over 45 hours my recommendation would be to ensure you’re eating well, exercising frequently, and engaging in some kind of stress reduction techniques 3-4x a week.

These are some good starting points to help combat developing diabetes later in life.

Talk soon,

Dr. Wiggy
www.HealthAsItOughtToBe.com