Differences in Glucose Metabolism Among Women With Spinal Cord Injury May Not Be Fully Explained by Variations in Body Composition.
Jia Li, Gary R Hunter, Yuying Chen and 3 others
PMID 30316957WHAT IT FOUND
Women with tetraplegia handled a glucose drink worse than women with paraplegia or able-bodied controls, even after accounting for body fat and lean mass.
No treatment was tested.
Key findings
01After a glucose drink, women with tetraplegia had higher glucose, insulin, and C-peptide at 120 minutes than women with paraplegia or able-bodied controls, even when body fat percentage and lean mass were taken into account.
02Women with tetraplegia had lower estimated whole-body insulin sensitivity than able-bodied controls after body composition adjustment.
03Fasting glucose, insulin, C-peptide, and insulin resistance did not differ among the groups after adjustment for body fat percentage and lean mass.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, and the analysis could adjust for only two covariates at a time. The study included only women with spinal cord injury who were generally healthy and excluded known diabetes, major disease, pregnancy, and conditions requiring hospital care, so it may not apply to women with spinal cord injury who have those conditions. Fat was measured as total body fat and visceral fat, not by distribution such as intra-, inter-, or subcutaneous fat, so fat distribution may still matter. Duration of injury, physical activity, and menopausal status were not examined as contributors. Measurements were taken once, on a test day, so the study cannot show how glucose handling changes over time. The study did not test any intervention, so it cannot show that changing body composition or activity will improve glucose metabolism.
Declared interests
No author conflicts are stated in the supplied text. The article metadata lists NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing body fat or increasing lean mass will improve glucose handling in women with tetraplegia. This study did not test any treatment, and it found that body composition measures did not fully explain the glucose differences.