Diabetes May Augment Liver Ailment Risks

It is common knowledge that people suffering from diabetes are also vulnerable to loss of vision as well as kidney failure. While this has been known for ages, a latest study suggests that things may be even worse for people enduring diabetes. The new study hints at other possible harmful outcome of the ailment. According to the findings of the research, people who have developed diabetes recently may also face a higher risk of having severe liver ailments, including liver failure and/ or cirrhosis.

The new study undertaken by the scientists at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences was recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. During the course of the research, the scientists made use of the vast database of medical claims in Ontario to investigate whether people who develop diabetes also face an increased risk of developing a potential liver ailment. In effect, the scientists searched the unidentified records of as many as 2.5 million people in the age group of 30 and 75 years over 12 years between April 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006.

The authors of the study perceive that the medical rules do not make it mandatory for the physicians to monitor for or undertake any tests on diabetes patients for problems related to the liver. This means that the physicians virtually neglect the medical conditions of a vital organ like the liver while treating a diabetes patient. And, this, they say, makes the situation all the more critical. The findings of the research undertaken by the scientists at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences stated that people who were freshly identified as having diabetes seemed to face around 77 per cent more risk of having a serious liver ailment compared to people who did not endure diabetes.

During the course of their research, the scientist made a comparative study to find the rate of liver diseases in approximately 440,000 people who were identified of having developed diabetes between April 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006 and a little over two million people who did not suffer from the disease. Keeping in view a mean of 6.4 years from being diagnosed with diabetes, the scientists discovered that as many as 2,463 people enduring the malady and 5,902 people who did not develop the ailment were found to be suffering from some or the other kind of liver ailment. This denoted that the rate of liver diseases was 8.19 for every 10,000 person years for those enduring diabetes and around 4.17 for every 10,000 person years for people who have not been diagnosed of developing diabetes.

When the researchers amended the data available from the study with a view to eliminate the influences of age difference, disparity in income, variation in healthcare habit and medical conditions existing from before, such as any heart ailment, hypertension or high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol levels in blood stream, they came to the conclusion that people who had been recently diagnosed with diabetes faced around 77 per cent higher risks of developing serious liver disorders compared to people who did not have the disease.

The scientists also observed that a previous study conducted on the subject in the United States had found the perils of developing liver ailments was almost twofold for people having diabetes. However, they stated that most of the patients who were examined in the study conducted in the United States were nearly all elderly men admitted to hospitals with different complications, diabetes included. What is significant is that the period for which they have been enduring diabetes was not known to the US researchers. According to the authors who explored the database of patients in Ontario, when the findings and facts available from the two studies - the one in the US and the latest one in Canada - are merged it puts forward the overall theory that diabetes is likely to be detrimental for the health of liver.

However, at the same time, the scientists have accepted the fact that it is quite difficult to find out the possible impacts of other medical conditions that accompany Type II diabetes - problems that are commonly known as the ‘metabolic syndrome’, on the patients. In fact, the term ‘metabolic syndrome’ denotes a cluster of associated health disorders, including high cholesterol, hypertension or high blood pressure and unnecessary accumulation of fat in the abdomen.

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