A University of Alberta team of researchers has discovered an additional 2 million Canadians who have a high fat diet or are overweight may be at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes if they carry a particular type of common specific genetic trait known as a polymorphism. In work published today in the journal, Diabetes, pharmacology professor Peter Light and graduate student Michael Riedel suggest that saturated and trans fats are much more effective activators of a specific potassium channel found in the pancreas--known when activated to reduce insulin secretion from the pancreas and increase blood sugar levels. This effect, they say, is amplified in the polymorphic potassium channel. Interestingly, it seems that polyunsaturated fats are poor activators of the potassium channel.
