Iron levels in blood signal diabetes risk

Women with high levels of iron in their blood may run nearly triple the risk of developing diabetes, a study has found.

The research involved 32,826 healthy women who were followed for 10 years after giving blood samples. Type 2 diabetes was diagnosed in 698 of the women. On average, they had significantly higher initial iron levels than the other women.

If the results are confirmed in further studies, simple blood tests might some day help doctors determine which patients will develop diabetes.

High levels might also indicate which women should avoid iron supplements, said co-author Dr JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The findings appear in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

It is known that people with hemochromatosis – an inherited disease that causes the body to absorb too much iron from food – are prone to diabetes.

Elevated iron levels can damage cells and interfere with the functioning of the organs, which may affect the body’s use of insulin, a hormone that helps convert sugar in the blood into energy, the researchers said.

Diabetes develops when the body does not make enough insulin or cannot use it properly.

In the current study, dietary iron was not strongly associated with high blood levels of iron, and the results are too preliminary to recommend any lifestyle changes, Manson said.