French researchers say a slender waistline can pay big dividends for your health. Specifically, weight loss that whittles the waist lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome, which in turn decreases your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes, not to mention heart disease.

Even if you are otherwise healthy with a normal body mass index, having a wider-than-average waist automatically puts you at higher risk for metabolic syndrome. So says Beverley Balkau, the study's lead author, in an interview with Reuters. Balkau and her colleagues found that men and women whose waistlines grew by three or more inches over a period of nine years experienced a measurably greater risk for metabolic syndrome.

The good news is that losing just a little weight can help a lot. Women who lost even an inch or more around the waist during the study period ended up with a reduced risk for metabolic syndrome, unlike those whose waist measurements stayed the same. In addition, many women who began the study already diagnosed with metabolic syndrome but who managed to lose an inch or more from their waists during its course ended up free of symptoms.

The study has been published in Diabetes Care (July 2007).

British-based website Scientist Live reports on a possible link between cancer and the use of thiazolidinediones (TZDs), a class of medications used to treat diabetes. The link comes from the Vermont Diabetes Information System, which enrolled just over one thousand participants in a study that relied on self-reported patient information and lab-verified data. The authors of the study assert that the link between TZD use and increased incidence of cancer is significant even after correcting data to allow for the influence of other factors such as smoking, body mass index, and other drugs being taken by the patients.

A little background: TZDs are prescribed because they lower blood sugar levels. They work by lowering insulin resistance, making the body better able to respond to insulin without actually causing an increase in insulin production. Brand name examples of TZDs include Actos, Avandia and Metformin. A type of TZD medication was banned in Europe after it was found to cause severe liver damage. According to the Wikipedia entry on TZDs, these substances are being investigated as potential treatments for a handful of other medical problems, but are currently used just for diabetes.

If there is indeed a link between TZD usage and increased cancer risk, we really need to find out ASAP. These drugs are prescribed to treat a chronic condition, so once you're on one you're likely to stay on it long-term. Who wants to be exposed to that on top of all the other possible side-effect risks? Stay tuned.

If you are a woman in your 20s, 30s and early 40s, invest regularly in a healthy lifestyle. Keep the weight off -- a payout awaits you in middle-age.

Researchers reveal a woman's Body Mass Index (BMI) in her late 40s is the strongest predictor for risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the next eight years. An Australian research team from the University of Queensland followed 7,239 women for eight years between 1996-2004. Participants ranged in age between 45-50 at the start of the project, and they completed four health surveys over the duration of the study.

Women identifying themselves as overweight or obese, with BMIs of 25 or greater, were at the highest risk for developing type 2 by the year 2004. The worst risk lie with very obese women carrying BMIs of 35 or more, they were twelve times more likely to develop type 2 than normal-weight peers. Surprisingly, weight gained or lost during the eight-year study window did not alter a woman's risk for diabetes. Physical activity reduced risk for only the most active women.

Authors recommend public initiatives to prevent weight gain before and during early adulthood, as risk for type 2 is more closely related to BMI between 45-50 years than subsequent short-term weight change. While it is never too late to lose weight and reap a myriad of health benefits, it could be too late to lower your risk for type 2 diabetes. Read more about the study in Reuters or the abstract in Diabetes Care.

A Swedish study has found that elevated blood sugar in women is linked with increased risk of developing cancer.

Researchers identified 2,478 incident cases of cancer from records of 33,293 women and 31,304 men who participated in the study. Participants were recruited in the mid-1980s at age 40, 50 and 60 and the study covered a 13-year period. The records included levels of glucose in the blood when fasting and after receiving an infusion of glucose. Researchers calculated the cancer risk relative to blood glucose while adjusting for: age, year of enrollment, fasting time and smoking status. Women with blood sugar levels higher than normal have a total higher risk for cancer while for men the risk was unchanged at higher blood sugar levels. The overall risk of developing cancer for women in the top 25% of fasting blood glucose levels was 26% higher than those in the bottom 25%. Women with high fasting glucose levels had a higher risk of pancreatic, breast and endometrial cancers, while the increase in risk for malignant melanoma was two times higher.

While previous studies have shown that cancer risk for some cancers is higher for people with type 2 diabetes, this study suggests that something could be happening to trigger cancer much earlier, as glucose levels begin to rise. The scientists also found that the blood sugar levels gradually rose over the period of the study, which they suggest means that cancer risks would also continue to rise unless glucose levels were brought down by some means. The results were no different when they took Body Mass Index (BMI) into account.

The study provides further evidence for an association between abnormal glucose metabolism and cancer. If you ask me - I think this has to do with the pH levels of the blood. It is well known that cancer manifests in blood levels of higher acidity. Poor diabetic control can result in higher acid levels in the blood. The catch 22 is poor diabetic control leaves your entire blood chemistry off kilter and it cannot defend any rogue cells - especially those associated with malignant growth (i.e. cancer!)

Being wide around the waistline doesn't just make your pants uncomfortable. It actually increases your risk for Type 2 diabetes. Studies have shown a relationship between Type 2 diabetes risk and waist-to-hip ratio, which measures abdominal obesity. That's opposed to the more commonly used body mass index (BMI), which measures the overall fat being carried on the body. Diabetes experts want to spread the word that you reeaally don't want a waist-to-hip ratio that's higher than the recommended 31.5 inches for women and 37 inches for men (or the recommended 35 inches for South Asian men). Storing all that tummy fat, they say, ups your risk for health complaints like diabetes and heart disease.

But wait: there's a silver lining! Exercise can help reduce this risk. That's according to researchers working in Helsinki, Finland, who published the results of their work in Diabetic Medicine. Here's the word from Katja Borodulin, who headed up the Finnish study: "People who were obese [according to the waist-to-hip ratio] were more likely to be diagnosed with glucose intolerance and Type 2 diabetes but if they were physically active their risk was significantly lower." They researchers define "active" as the standard thirty minutes of exercise at least five days a week.

CBS News is running a report on new findings published in Diabetes Care (July 2006). The title seems a little silly to me: "Diet May Help Minorities' Diabetes." Well, duh, I thought.

Anyway, the point is that minorities (defined as African Americans, Asians and Hispanics) are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than are white Americans. The news is that improved eating habits may benefit these minorities in terms of controlling their diabetes than would be the case for whites. Surprised? I am.

Also from the Diabetes Care research is the news that body mass index does not fully explain why minorities suffer from diabetes at a higher rate. In other words, it's not just about weight, folks.

Finally, the researchers also concluded that gaining weight puts Asians at a particularly high risk for diabetes.

Check out the CBS article for a long summary of the research. Of course, Diabetes Care contains the full story.

I believe one of the most humiliating moments in my life was having my body mass index (BMI) calculated while in high school. Ugh. Talk about child abuse. I still cringe when I see BMI turn up in the news. However, it may be worthwhile to undergo the BMI test because it can be an awareness-raising tool. According to Dr. K. M. Venkat Narayan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) it is especially useful as regards diabetes.

Dr. Narayan, who works with the division of diabetes translation at the CDC, believes BMI can be used to calculate your risk of developing diabetes. He has devised a statistical model for tracking health probabilities for a given individual's lifetime. In the case of diabetes, Narayan takes the BMI of a person at age eighteen and then uses that to estimate diabetes risk, in the form of percentages. For example, a woman who is overweight at age eighteen has a thirty-five percent chance of developing diabetes later in life. In contrast, a woman whose BMI is normal at age eighteen has only a seventeen percent chance, while a very obese eighteen year old has a seventy-four percent chance.