オハサマ研究の重要性
Hello everyone, SCIEN-SPOT is a podcast that shines a spotlight on the latest scientific technology from Japan.
Your host is REN from SCIEN-TALK.
Today, I am going to talk about the blood sugar levels.
What comes to mind when you hear blood sugar levels?
Many of us know about diabetes, and as high blood sugar over time increases the risk of various complications and affects lifespan.
But what if I told you that even within the normal blood sugar range before you were diagnosed with diabetes,
there might be a hidden danger that significantly impacts your health and longevity?
This research is a discovery that could change how we think about normal blood sugar.
I will talk about a collaborative study conducted by a research group from Tohoku University,
Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, and Tokyo University.
They focused on a large-scale health survey called the Ohasama Study,
which has been continuously collecting health data from local residents in Ohasama Town, Iwate Prefecture,
for about 40 years, starting in 1986.
Ohasama Studyの成果
As part of the Ohasama Study, participants regularly undergo a glucose tolerance test.
This test involves drinking a 75-gram glucose solution and measuring how blood sugar levels change before and after,
and is commonly used to diagnose diabetes.
By analyzing this valuable long-term data,
researchers have uncovered a new relationship between health and longevity that was previously overlooked.
The research group first thoroughly examined the data from 993 individuals who underwent the glucose tolerance test in the Ohasama Study.
They found that even after adjusting for known risk factors like age, obesity, and smoking,
the blood sugar level one hour after drinking the glucose solution was strongly associated with future mortality risk.
Furthermore, since these 993 participants included some already diagnosed with diabetes,
they then extracted and further analyzed data from only the 595 individuals who were diagnosed as having normal blood sugar levels.
After examining various blood sugar cut-off points,
they discovered that the most significant value link to mortality risk was 170 mg per deciliter for the one-hour post-low glucose level.
To help you understand this, let's use an analogy.
Imagine your blood sugar levels as the water levels of a river.
When you eat carbohydrates, it's like a temporary surge in the river's water level.
Normally, your body tries to regulate this level, preventing a sudden flood.
Diabetes is like the river's regulation system being significantly broken, leading to constant flooding.
However, what this new study revealed is that even if it's not a full-blown flood,
if the water level temporarily goes above a specific level of 170 mg per deciliter after eating,
it can, over many years, gradually cause damage to the riverbanks, eventually leading to landslides or erosion.
This means that this is over-mortality.
The study divided individuals diagnosed as normal into two groups based on this 170 mg per deciliter cut-off and tracked their health outcomes.
They compared the group with one-hour post-low glucose levels below 170 mg per deciliter to the group with levels at or above this parameter, and the results were striking.
オサコ研究の発見
Over an average observation period of 14.3 years, and a specific 20-year follow-up, nearly 80% of individuals below this 170 mg per deciliter group were still alive,
whereas approximately 50% of those at or above this group had passed away.
This is a statistically highly significant difference.
Furthermore, when they investigated the causes of death, they found the group with one-hour post-low glucose levels below this parameter
had significantly fewer deaths from atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke, and also from malignant neoplasm or cancers.
Compared to the higher glucose group, this is a crucial finding.
What this research indicates is that even within what's considered a normal blood sugar range for non-diabetics, the way your blood sugar rises after a meal, especially its value one hour later,
significantly impacts your healthy lifespan and overall longevity.
While previous efforts mostly focused on intervention after diabetes onset, these findings suggest that addressing sudden post-meal glucose spikes even before the pre-disease stage of diabetes could be key to preventing serious illnesses like heart disease or cancer, and ultimately extending life.
Currently, the one-hour post-low glucose level is not included in the official diagnostic criteria for diabetes, but this study suggests that it should be considered in the future to promote healthy longevity.
That's all for today's SciencePod.
This podcast is broadcast daily on the weekday morning in both Japanese and English.
I hope today's discovery has changed how you view your diet or health, and I'd love for you to listen to the podcast and post your notes and thoughts with the hashtag SciencePod.
See you next time.
