Diabetes is a chronic disease that is characterized by high blood sugar levels. According to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, diabetes affects 25.8 million Americans with 1.9 million people under the age of 20 diagnosed in 2010 alone. Researchers have studied various aspects of diabetes and have discovered that high serum ferritin levels are associated with diabetes risk and insulin resistance.
Ferritin
Ferritin is a protein that stores your body's supply of iron for use when it is needed. By measuring your serum ferritin levels through a blood test, your physician can get an idea of the amount of iron your body is storing. According to the National Institutes of Health, normal serum ferritin levels should be between 12 and 300 nanograms per milliliter for adult males, and between 12 to 150 ng/ml for adult females.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease that causes high blood sugar. If you are diabetic, your pancreas either fails to produce enough insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar, or is resistant to the insulin produced. There are three major types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood and is characterized by the body's inability to make insulin. Patients with Type 1 diabetes require insulin injections to regulate blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form and is usually diagnosed in adulthood. In this case, the body does not produce enough insulin or the body does not respond well enough to the insulin to regulate blood glucose. Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy and can increase a woman's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life.
Diabetes Research
Researchers have looked at the connections between high ferritin levels and diabetes. A 2011 study published in "Metabolism" looked at the association among serum ferritin; metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, elevated glucose and high abdominal obesity; and diabetes. Looking at serum ferritin levels, the researchers discovered a connection. The higher the serum ferritin concentrations were, the greater the risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes Research
Gestational diabetes was the subject of another ferritin study published in 2010 in "Diabetes and Metabolism." Researchers were interested in the connection between high serum ferritin levels and women with premature labor, and its association to gestational diabetes and intrauterine growth retardation. They also wanted to see if the high ferritin levels were accurately associated with high iron levels in both the mother and the fetus. What they discovered was that the high ferritin levels in the mother did not reflect excess iron in either the mother or the fetus, but it was associated to an increased risk of both gestational diabetes and intrauterine growth retardation, or a low birth weight.
References
- National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse; National Diabetes Statistics, 2011; February 2011
- MedlinePlus; Diabetes; May 10, 2010
- "Metabolism"; Association of Serum Ferritin With Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes Mellitus in the South Korean General Population According to the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008; BK Lee et al.; April 11, 2011
- "Diabetes and Metabolism"; Association of Increased Maternal Ferritin Levels With Gestational Diabetes and Intra-Uterine Growth Retardation; V. Soubasi et al.; February 2010
- MedlinePlus; Ferritin; January 28, 2010
- MedlinePlus; Intrauterine Growth Restriction; November 21, 2010
