Diabetes Risk Increases In Individuals With Higher Heart Rates

New findings published in the International Journal of Epidemiology reveal that higher heart rates may be a sign of an increased risk of diabetes in some individuals.

Researchers at Penn State University found that faster heart rates were associated with impaired fasting glucose levels and found that fast heart rates held 59 percent increased risk of diabetes relative to those with slow heart rate.

The four year study involved the collection and analyzation of over 73,000 Chinese adults who combined results with those of seven previously published studies, including nearly 98,000 men and women in total.

A follow-up examination also identified 17,463 prediabetic cases and 4,649 diabetes cases that examined glucose every year beginning in 2006.

"In this study, we measured resting heart rate among about 100,000 Chinese adults and followed them for four years," Xiang Gao, senior author of the study, said in a statement. "We found participants with faster heart rates, suggesting lower automatic function, had increased risk of diabetes, pre-diabetes, and conversion from pre-diabetes to diabetes. Each additional 10 beats per minute was associated with 23 percent increased risk of diabetes, similar to the effects of a 3 kilogram per meter square increase in body mass index."