Fatty Acid Metabolism, Impaired Glucose Tolerance and the Effects of Lifestyle

The prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly. Fortunately, the
awareness of diabetes as a problem of major concern is also rising. The
justification for this concern is shown by the results in chapter 2. A single oral
glucose tolerance test was performed in 2715 subjects at high risk for glucose
intolerance, i.e. those of age > 40 years and/or a family history of diabetes and/or a
BMI > 25 kg/m2. This revealed that every three out of ten people at risk had an
impairment in glucose metabolism (impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose
tolerance or diabetes mellitus type 2), and one out of twelve had diabetes mellitus
type 2.

This thesis is focussed on metabolic impairments that are related to the
development of diabetes mellitus type 2, which is investigated in subjects with
impaired glucose tolerance, and evaluates the effects of different lifestyle aspects
on these metabolic impairments. Since the majority of people in Western societies
is in the postprandial state most of the day, we have paid special attention to the
handling of fatty acids by skeletal muscle after a meal.
Eva Corpeleijn, November 10th 2006