Racing Heart Indicates Higher Diabetes Risk, Study

A large sample study claims that faster heart rate indicates a higher risk of developing diabetes.

Researchers studied 73,357 Chinese adults during four years to find that individuals with higher heart rates had higher risk of pre-diabetes and diabetes. They also found that faster heart beating was associated with impaired fasting glucose levels.

"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," said Xiang Gao, the study's senior author.

Gao's team measured heart rates after subjects rested for five minutes when lying on their backs. During the study 17,463 cases of pre- diabetes and 4,649 cases of diabetes were reported.

Researchers also analyzed other studies which showed a similar relationship between heart rate and diabetes.

"We further combined our results with those of seven previously published studies including 97,653 men and women in total, on the same topic, and we found a similar association -- individuals with fast heart rate had 59 percent increased risk of diabetes relative to those with slow heart rate," Gao said, adding that faster heart rate could be a pre-clinical marker for diabetes.