While each individual’s risk for type 2 diabetes is unique, some 15 percent of men who developed the condition likely would not have had they started puberty later, says a co-author of the study, Jenny Kindblom, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden. RELATED: 8 Surprising Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes
Detailed Growth Records Made Study Possible
The research, published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, in March 2020, examined a large cohort of Swedish men who participated in a huge study in that country, known as the BMI Epidemiology Study Gothenburg. Records were analyzed of some 30,000 baby-boom males who had been followed for three decades.
Growth Charts Show Growth Spurts
Unlike with girls, where age at menarche is used as a marker for when they enter puberty, boys’ hormonal changes have been harder for scientists to pin down. In this study, the researchers had access to the subjects’ growth charts when they were boys. This enabled them to document their adolescent spurt, which typically occurs two years after the start of puberty. This spurt is known medically as peak height velocity (PHV). Boys who had their PHV at the youngest ages, below 13.4 years in this study, were roughly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes when they were in their fifties or younger (which the researchers termed “early diabetes”) than those who spurted closer to age 15. RELATED: What Men Need to Know About Type 2 Diabetes These men were also more likely to develop a more serious version of the disease, as evidenced by their need for insulin to help manage the condition. By contrast, a pubertal growth spurt after age 15 was associated with a 30 percent reduced risk of developing early diabetes compared with those with an average-age PHV (13.8 to 14.3 years).
Childhood BMI Isn’t the Cause of the Puberty/Diabetes Connection
Importantly, the researchers had access to body mass index (BMI) readings in childhood (8 years of age). Having this information helped them rule out higher pre-pubertal BMI as a factor, since it is well established that a higher childhood BMI is a strong risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. Based on the BMI of the boys, researchers found that the higher risk for the disease could not be explained by their childhood weight. The findings were also not affected by the men’s birth year, country of birth, birthweight, or education level. RELATED: What Is Prediabetes? Risk Factors, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Diet, and More
Why Puberty and Diabetes Might Be Connected
Dr. Kindblom says that researchers can’t say for sure why early puberty was found to be linked to increased diabetes risk. Some research has shown that girls whose periods begin earlier also face higher rates of blood-sugar problems, she says, referencing data collected by researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Kindblom speculates that in boys, a possible connection is “that early puberty leads to more visceral fat” in adulthood. This is the fat that gathers around the abdominal organs, which is known to increase “cardiometabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure and abnormal lipid levels,” she says. Research that she worked on earlier found a link between early puberty and more dangerous visceral fat later in life; it was published in the journal Diabetes. But the scientists did not have access to participants’ BMI through adulthood in order to test this hypothesis. They also note that their findings are observational and so do not show cause and effect. Finally, most participants were white, meaning the findings may not apply to men of other ethnicities, the authors note. RELATED: How Genetics May Affect Your Diabetes Risk
What You Can Do to Lower Your Diabetes Odds
Since this is a cohort study, the findings don’t apply to any one individual, Kindblom notes. This means you could have gone through early puberty and never develop type 2 diabetes. Still, “it’s important to monitor adolescents’ height and weight to identify individuals with increased risk,” she says. To lower your odds for developing the disease, the American Diabetes Association recommends that people lose weight, quit smoking, exercise, and reduce blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Carla Duenas, a certified diabetes care and education specialist at Baptist Health South Florida, says that both adolescent and adult males need to take diabetes prevention seriously. Her suggestions include:
Stop regularly consuming sugary sodas or energy drinks; avoid sports drinks unless you’re extensively training in the heat.
Pair carbohydrates with proteins and a healthy fat, such as Greek yogurt and a banana for breakfast (an important meal for blood-sugar regulation, she says) or a tuna sandwich on whole-wheat bread for lunch.
Strive to get the recommended minimum of 150 hours of exercise each week, and aim for even more time by joining a team sport you especially enjoy.
