Over the years, researchers have proven time after time that beige fat possesses both the qualities of white and brown fat. This “hybrid fat” can not only hoard energy, like white fat, but also burn energy, similar to brown fat.
In 2015, researchers discovered another interesting feature of beige fat: it has the ability to switch between storing and burning energy. Most recently, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found a way of keeping beige cells in the energy-burning state.
Why does this matter? By preventing beige fat cells from digesting their own mitochondria, researchers actually protected mice against obesity and symptoms of prediabetes. A graduate student who worked on the study, Svetlana Altshuler-Keylin, explains. “We knew that the color of brown and beige fat comes from the amount of pigmented mitochondria they contain, so we wondered whether something was going on with the mitochondria when beige fat turns white.”

An article published in The Independent this morning states, "Medics, police officers and fire fighters could be at increased risk of developing diabetes." 

The publication comes after new research was published in the Occupational & Environmental Medicine journal linking a heightened risk of diabetes to shift work.

In comparison with conventional employees who work a 9 to 5 day, shift workers, especially “graveyard” shift workers, are 9 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Additionally, researchers found that male shift workers are 37 percent more likely to develop diabetes while employees who work rotating rather than fixed shift patterns have an increased risk of 42 percent.

According to CBS News, ‘”Some potential biological mechanisms may explain the link between shift work and [diabetes],” the researchers write in their study. “First, shift work may interfere with the normal synchrony of the light-dark cycle, sleeping and eating patterns, which might cause a mismatch of circadian rhythms.”‘

Other research on the topic has also linked shift work to serious health conditions, including cancer, heart disease and potential harm to fertility for women who hold late night or rotating shift jobs.

Other articles covering this story include Forbes, Tech Times and BBC News.

A 2014 National Diabetes Statistics Report released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that nearly 29 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes and an additional 86 million adults have prediabetes. 

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, “Between 15% and 30% of those with prediabetes will go on to develop the full-fledged metabolic disorder within five years, a transition that can sometimes be averted with substantial weight loss and increased physical activity.”

​On it's website, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the following "key findings from the National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014 (based on health data from 2012):
​

1. 29 million people in the United States (9.3 percent) have diabetes.
   1. 1.7 million people aged 20 years or older were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2012.
   2. Non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native adults are about twice as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic white adults.
   3. 208,000 people younger than 20 years have been diagnosed with diabetes (type 1 or type 2).
   4. 86 million adults aged 20 years and older have prediabetes.
   5. The percentage of U.S. adults with prediabetes is similar for non-Hispanic whites (35 percent), non-Hispanic blacks (39 percent), and Hispanics (38 percent).”​
   
   

In addition to these alarming statistics, diabetes is costing patients financially. Adults with Type 2 Diabetes have medical bills that are two times higher than patients without the disease.
Dr. James Hendrick of Medical Metabolic Specialists is an expert in preventing and treating diabetes. Due to the new statistics and alarming numbers of diabetic and prediabetic Americans, a lot of you who are reading this post may need to schedule an appointment at our office in Fort Collins, Colorado. If you are looking for a weight loss clinic to help you deal with the causes of being overweight and meet your individual needs, Medical Metabolic Specialists is for you.