Bikaner, Rajasthan: Air pollution is a critical and manageable risk factor for diabetes, and hence there is a need for awareness about air pollution in the society and at the government level, says a recent study in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India. The study found that long-term air pollution is associated with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), impaired fasting glucose (IFG), and diabetes prevalence.
Exposure to air pollution has been shown to impact health through several biological pathways adversely and is also tied to glucose metabolism. Only a few studies have investigated the associations between air pollution and fasting blood sugar and HbAlC levels, but no such study was conducted in the Indian population.
“We found that long-term air pollution exposure was associated with IFG, IGT, and prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM),” wrote the authors.
“This study can be used as good evidence that air pollution is an important and manageable risk factor for diabetes; hence there is a much need for awareness about air pollution in the society and at the government level,” they concluded.
Source: medicaldialogues.in