Some people have a greater predisposition to convert fats into ceramides, which causes insulin resistance to develop.
To this day, about 380 million people with type 2 diabetes coexist throughout the world, a disease whose appearance is largely conditioned by life habits.Not surprisingly, the main risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes are, in addition to smoking, lack of exercise and follow inadequate food.Or what is the same, obesity.
So much so that, since the global prevalence of obesity does not stop growing, the number of patients with type 2 diabetes is expected to double in just two decades.However, there are obese people who remain ‘apparently’ healthy and do not develop the disease.And also, people who still have been suffering from.
And this, how do you explain?Because according to a study carried out by researchers at the School of Health of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (USA), because perhaps the body weight is not as important as the accumulation of a type of toxic metabolites of originlipidic called 'ceramidas'.
As Scott Summers, co-author of this research published in the magazine "Cell Metabolism", explains, "ceramides influence the way in which the organism manages nutrients.And it is that ceramids damage the way in which the body responds to insulin and how it burns calories ».
Identified guilty
In case of supercharging, the body produces an excess of fatty acids that can be stored in the form of triglycerides or burned to produce energy.However, in some people these fatty acids end up becoming another type of lipids or fats: ceramides.And at this point, what exactly do these ceramids do?Well, so far I was not too clear.But as the new study shows, its accumulation causes adipose tissue not to work properly, so fat ends ‘spreading’ by blood vessels, damaging the heart and other tissues.
In addition, the authors filled both crops of human adipocytes as animal models - oratones - making them non -responders to insulin and causing damage to their ability to burn calories.In a result, the mice had a much greater susceptibility to develop diabetes and non -alcoholic hepatic steatosis - this is, the usual ‘fatty liver’.
High ceramid levels could increase the risk of diabetes, while low could protect against the disease.
More;The results also showed that animals with lower levels of ceramids in their adipose tissues had greater protection against insulinorresite, that is, the first sign of diabetes.In short, the authors highlight, "our findings indicate that high levels of ceramides could increase the risk of diabetes, while low levels could protect against the development of the disease."
is not a matter of weight
And in addition to cell crops in the laboratory and animal models, this negative effect of ceramides also takes place in humans?Well, it seems that.And as the authors remember, ceramid levels predict to a greater extent the risk of type 2 diabetes than obesity in Singapore patients who have undergone bariatric surgery.Not surprisingly, and although all the patients intervened were obese, those who had not developed type 2 diabetes had lower levels of ceramides than those in which the disease had been diagnosed.
As Bhagirath Chaurasia, director of the investigation, points out, “this could indicatethat some people are more likely than others to turn calories into ceramides.Thus, the results suggest that some thin people will develop diabetes or fatty liver in case something that, as would be their genetics, causes the accumulation of ceramides.
In fact, there are many Asia countries that, although they have a significantly lower rate of obesity than the United States, have a much greater prevalence of type 2 diabetes. As indicated by Scott Summers, “some people are not made to deal with thedaily fat.It's not just about how much people can eat, because some people can eat a lot and store fats in an effective way, so they stay healthy.
In short, and since its accumulation increases the predisposition of a person, whether thin or obese, to develop type 2 diabetes, ceramides can be a therapeutic target to avoid the disease.As Bhagirath Chaurasia concludes, «by blocking the production of ceramids we could be able to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes or other metabolic diseases.Or at least so would be in some people ».
