A study just out links high rates of diabetes to African Americans who lived in substandard housing. Sigh. Doesn't that seem rather obvious? Does it really require a big study to confirm it?? Well, anyway, here's the scoop: researchers collected data on 998 African American men and women born in St. Louis between 1936 and 1950. They looked at all the risk factors for those individuals - factors that could contribute to ill health. Examples of risk factors include access to medical care and quality of neighborhoods (including such things as air quality, condition of yards and sidewalks, and proximity to industrial sites and traffic noise.)

The conclusion? Those whose housing conditions were ranked as only fair or poor were at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, even after adjusting for other social or environmental factors, those in substandard housing had double the risk for diabetes.

Confused as to why? So are the researchers behind the study. Says lead researcher Dr. Mario Schootman of the Washington University School of Medicine, "So far, we can't explain why that is. It could potentially be related to lead. Lead is associated with the development of diabetes, and we know that in some poorer housing conditions, there's likely to be lead exposure. But it also could be related to other, unknown, environmental contaminants."

Just yesterday I shelled out for a quality water filter. My concern is that there could be lead in the plumbing of my old house. Reading this, I'm so glad I did. Who knows what junk is floating around in our air and water these days. Sad, huh?

Results for Dr. Schootman's study have been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (August, 2007).

UPDATE 8/21: One reader commented in no uncertain terms that this is just a bunch of PC overkill. Read carefully. "After adjusting for other...factors, those in substandard housing had double the risk for diabetes." So you have two obese guys who eat Fritos for dinner and fried chicken for breakfast. They both drink soda at every meal. The one who lives in substandard housing is statistically more likely to develop diabetes than the guy who lives in fair or poor housing.

Kerri Morrone, one of my favorite bloggers -- who happens to be living with diabetes without allowing it to define the life she lives -- blogs over at Six Until Me. She also writes a column at dLife, and her latest column Diabetes Can be a Day at the Beach: Integrating Your Pump Into the Summer Season is a reassurance that integrating the pump into summer wear isn't nearly as daunting and formidable a task as one might imagine before making the attempt. Perhaps a little trickier and requiring a little more ingenuity, than say, wearing the pump under layers of winter clothing might require -- but she shows how it can be done, and done well.

Morrone also shares the sometimes amusing and less than astute observances made by the general public. There are, of course, the experts who wander among us, who know everything. Just ask them about anything and they will clarify exactly what you are looking at but might not understand. You will see what I mean after you read Morrone's column. What a pinhead the guy was -- that's all I am going to say. To read her column, go here.