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Dietary magnesium intake and the risk of diabetes in the Japanese community: results from the Takayama study

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Abstract

Purpose

Several experimental studies showed that magnesium intake improved insulin resistance and glucose uptake in diabetes patients. However, epidemiological studies on the association between magnesium intake and diabetes risk have yielded inconsistent results. We investigated whether magnesium intake is related to the risk of developing diabetes in a population-based cohort study in Japan.

Methods

Study subjects were participants in the Takayama study. A total of 13,525 residents in Takayama City, Japan, responded to a self-administered questionnaire in 1992 and to a follow-up questionnaire seeking information about diabetes in 2002. Magnesium and other nutrient intakes were estimated from a validated food frequency questionnaire administered at the baseline.

Results

During a follow-up of 10 years, 438 subjects reported diabetes newly diagnosed by physician. Compared with women in the low quartile of magnesium intake, women in the high quartile were at a significantly reduced risk of diabetes (HR 0.50; 95 % CI 0.30–0.84; P-trend 0.005) after adjustments for covariates. In men, there was no association between magnesium intake and the risk of diabetes.

Conclusion

These results suggest that diets with a high intake of magnesium may decrease the risk of diabetes in women.

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Abbreviations

FFQ:

Food frequency questionnaire

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Acknowledgments

Our study has been financially supported by the National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan

    Kie Konishi, Keiko Wada, Takashi Tamura, Toshiaki Kawachi & Chisato Nagata

  2. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Nagoya Women’s University, Nagoya, Japan

    Michiko Tsuji

Authors
  1. Kie Konishi
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  2. Keiko Wada
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  3. Takashi Tamura
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  4. Michiko Tsuji
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  6. Chisato Nagata
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Correspondence to Kie Konishi.

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Konishi, K., Wada, K., Tamura, T. et al. Dietary magnesium intake and the risk of diabetes in the Japanese community: results from the Takayama study. Eur J Nutr 56, 767–774 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-1122-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-1122-8

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