SHBG – Key Player In Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment

A latest blood test stoutly foresees the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. The blood test takes a closer look at SHBG or sex hormone-binding globulin. Previously solely regarded as a means for the body to store up surplus sex hormone, the SHBG presently is appearing to play a crucial role in a host of body functions.

Safeguard against or being susceptible to type 2 diabetes also seems to be widely influenced by the levels of SHBG in the blood.

Individuals with the least levels of SHBG had a tenfold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as compared to those with elevated SHBG levels.

Eric L. Ding, ScD, from the Harvard School of Public Health along with his associates concluded on the fact that sex hormone-binding globulin or SHBG might play a contributory role in the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Ding and his associates examined the data gathered during the course of the Women’s Health Study from female health experts that were in sound health and had not received hormone therapy. During the time span of the study, 359 of these women developed type 2 diabetes. A comparison was drawn against those 359 study candidates that did not develop diabetes.

After taking into account the risk elements leading to diabetes like weight and waist measurement, Ding’s team discovered that SHBG levels had a strong association with the risk of developing diabetes. Those women that had the least levels of SHBG were noted to have greater likelihood of developing diabetes as compared to those with soaring SHBG levels.

In order to seek corroboration for their finding, the scientists conducted the same study on men that were registered in the Physicians’ Health Study. A comparison was drawn up on 170 men that got diabetes during the course of the study against 170 men that did not develop diabetes.

The outcome of the study was almost alike in both sexes.

Furthermore, Ding and his associates discovered that the presence of rs6259gene variant in both sexes was noted to be associated with ten percent higher levels of SHBG as compared to those that did not have that gene variant. Additionally, those individuals with rs6257gene variant had correspondingly ten percent lower levels of SHBG.

Individuals that had the SHBG-increasing gene were noted to be less prone to developing diabetes while those individuals with the SHBG-lowering gene were noted to be more prone to having diabetes.

The scientists proposed that the level of SHBG in an individual might be a crucial factor in establishing the risk level of type 2 diabetes and the call for prompt, early treatment.

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