Research

Hormonal

Elevated baseline serum levels of tyrosine and branched-chain/aromatic amino acids are strongly associated with a higher risk of incident type 2 diabetes in South Asian men, independent of obesity and insulin resistance measures.

For South Asian men, having higher levels of certain amino acids (like tyrosine and branched-chain amino acids) is a strong indicator of increased diabetes risk, even if you are not obese or insulin resistant. This suggests that metabolic health assessments should go beyond standard obesity measures. Regular monitoring of these markers, alongside lifestyle interventions focused on diet and physical activity, may help in early detection and prevention of type 2 diabetes.

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Tyrosine was a particularly strong predictor of incident diabetes in South Asian individuals, even after adjustment for metabolic risk factors, including obesity and insulin resistance (adjusted OR for a 1 SD increment, 1.47, 95% CI 1.17,1.85, p=0.001) compared with Europeans (OR 1.10, 0.87, 1.39, p=0.4; p=0.045 for ethnicity×tyrosine interaction).
Therese Tillin et al. · Diabetologia · 2015

Why this rating

Prospective cohort study with 19-year follow-up, large sample size (n=1,279 European, n=1,007 South Asian), and rigorous adjustment for confounders.

Source

Diabetes risk and amino acid profiles: cross-sectional and prospective analyses of ethnicity, amino acids and diabetes in a South Asian and European cohort from the SABRE (Southall And Brent REvisited) Study

Therese Tillin et al. · Diabetologia · 2015

DOI 10.1007/s00125-015-3517-8

cohort · n=2286Cited 237×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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